Perfect Teeth
by xstayx
Summary: They're not so the same anymore...she had to go and grow up, get stuck..she's better than that..but they still have one thing in common. And they know. And he knows..if only she'd open her eyes. Love and life are not like anything. Especially not a knife.
1. Prologue

_Everyone has someone though it can make them bleed..._

_You...thrown in all directions...you...epitome of perfection..._

_She''s lost her will...time is standing still. Time is standing still..._

_And_ _I swear I'll know your face in the crowd..._

_And I'll hear your voice so loud when you're whispering..._

_Hey unfaithful... I will teach you to be stronger..._

_Hey ungraceful... I will teach you to forgive one another... _

_Hey unloving...I will love you...I will love you..._

**I will love you.**

The All American Rejects and Underoath

**Prologue**

She remembered her first year as though it were yesterday. But trying to recall other times, special times that perhaps she should have been able to look back on so closely she could almost reach out and touch them...had somewhere along the line become impossible. Funny, isn't it how unspecific days, and times of your life seem to simply slip through the cracks...?

And she thought it odd, sitting alone in a place she had reasonlessly stopped calling home so long ago, that if her hand was not so weak and shaky perhaps she might even be able to draw a line right through her life. For, for the first time she had begun to wonder if things might have turned out differently...if they even had the chance to do so at all. Wondering, if maybe she had lost some small fragment of herself somewhere along that line that she could no longer see clearly. Or maybe even a large part of her. Why did she enjoy the things that hurt her before? Why did she love them so much, even now that they put her through so much more pain?

And as she scratched random thoughts, she was unsure were even her's into her diary she could tell, her handwriting didn't even look the same anymore. Or maybe she was seeing it for the first time. Maybe she was seeing it all for the first time.

This is not a tale of the victim...

No more is it one of the villain...

It''s just of those people who get caught in between

It's just of those things that no one quite sees

It's just of those tears no one quite notices

It's just of those fake smiles no one can quite see through

Those broken people no one can quite understand.

It's just of the things no one ever quite hears...

_Of noises and kisses and perfect teeth_

**Author's Note: Wooooo fun stuff. Okay firstly, the prologue may not seem to match the story for some time so please don''t hate the fic because of the story or vise versa. And if you do? Screw you. Well yeah. This fic doesn''t need much explaining as of now. Just R&R. And a quick note. The title will probably change SEVERAL times. Just because I get bored easily. And because I can''t think of a title to best suit it. Well. If you have a problem with that go die. And also I uuuurge you all to go check out the fic ''So Cold'', by my buddy le La. That is all.**

**I _am_ the lizard queen.**

**-Stay**


	2. Disregarded Happenings

**Disregarded Happenings**

"_GIIIIIINNNNNYYYY_" _SMACK_

_Welcome to the planet_

"Urrrgghh..." Ginny groaned rolling over in her sleep. She wasn't getting up. She _wasn't_...

Urgh, but _I _really should...

Finally in making a decision she opened her eyes to find herself nose to nose with her brother,

"_ACK_!" she screeched staggering up...and then...- "_George_!"

"Mom said to get you up." he grinned devilishly, "So..._up_ is where I got you!"

"What?" she asked wearily

"Get up! _Up!_" he bellowed smacking her with the pillow again

"I _am_ up you g-okay that does it." Ginny scooped up her own pillow and with all the force she could muster smacked George clean across the face. He was thrown against the wall and Ginny took a step backwards, satisfied. George blinked looking dazed then he peered up at his sister and nodded with approval.

"Nice...very nice. I would take my hat off to you if I were wearing one...but...I'm not. So come down and get breakfast before mum skins us both alive."

Ginny obeyed, stumbling out of the room and after George down three sets of staircases until she reached the kitchen. It was quite full, currently occupied by not only eight of the Weasleys, but Harry too.

"Oh." Ginny yawned "Hello Harry...when did you get here?"

"Yesterday night, dear. You were already asleep. We would have woken you up...but you seemed so peaceful. What is it that gets you so tired when you're on holidays?" Mrs Weasley inquired now stroked Ginny's hair.

"Nothing mum." she answered irritably. "Homework...honor's qualifying things. Quidditch practice...and I suppose it's good now that Harry's here because the three of us can practice." She smiled at Harry who nodded.

"I haven't been on my Firebolt in _ages_. I'm up to going out as soon as you two are."

"How about after breakfast?" Ron grunted with a mouthful of eggs.

Ginny was about to nod when suddenly she felt a painful force erupt into her mind. It wiped it clean of anything she had just been thinking...She felt white heat surge through her eyes. She whimpered quietly and squinted a little...

_Why is Harry here anyways? Why is he always here? You know sometimes I think it'd be fantastic if Harry were just to-_

"Ginny!" Ron said loudly snapping his fingers in her face. She jerked out of the trance, feeling the heat slowly fade away from her. She slowly opened her eyes all the way and looked back at Ron

"Erm...just toast. Went down...the wrong...pipe...thingy..." she said absentmindedly staring at Harry. "You know..." yawned Ginny falsely "I'm sort of...tired. I think I'll go back to bed."

She made to stand up and hurry back up the staircase but predictably her mother grabbed her arm

"No, no Ginny dear, you've had your sleep. You have things to do today. We can't be _lazy_. I want you to try and finish your homework today-"

"_Mum._ I have a million pages to do, I'm not even _halfway_-"

"All the more reason for you to get going!" she snapped "_Then_ I need you to feed the chickens. Cut the grass, clean you room and set up a place for Hermione in there as well, I expect she'll be turning up sometime tomorrow if not today..." she breathed. Ron looked up at the two of them, still bent low over his plate, his fork halfway to his mouth.

"Why does Ginny have more homework than I do?" he asked confusedly

"_Because_, Ginny is in _special_ classes this year." she answered stroking her daughter's hair lovingly

"Mum don't." Ginny said. She shoved her mother's hand away irritably as Ron snorted with laughter

"_Special_ eh?" he guffawed "Does that mean you're an idiotic git or something?"

"No, it means I'm smarter than _you,_ you ugly prat." Ginny snapped standing up.

"_Enough!_" Her mother screamed grabbing Ginny's hand as it raised into the air. Reluctantly she took her seat, Ron still chuckling quietly to himself and shoveling down bacon.

"Mum, seriously. I'm just going to go take a-"

"_DUCK!_" came Harry's voice out of no where. Automatically Ginny obeyed, just in time to avoid being hit by not one but five post owls.

"Pig!" Ron sighed exasperated. He stood up to collect his owl, but instead collided with a different one that had plowed forward at the sight of him. "Arrrrgh!" he choked trying to grab hold of the letter. When finally he managed, the owl gave a satisfied hoot as Ron glared at it, and finally flew out the open window. "Hogwarts letter." Ron grunted

"Yeah here's mine..." Ginny added ripping open the letter a tawny owl dropped by her feet, "This one's for you Harry...and I guess Dumbledore must know Hermione's coming, we got her's too..."

"What's Pig got?" Ron asked Ginny tore open Pig's letter obediently and scanned the first few sentences.

"It's for me." she said simply

"Oh?" Ron asked sharply "What's _my_ owl doing bringing _you_ letters?"

"It's a conspiracy of course." she replied sarcastically

"Well you sent it?"

"Laura." she shrugged letting her eyes fly across it briefly. "And now...I'm going upstairs...to...clean my room." she said eyeing her mother who gave a single nod. Ginny stalked down the hallway, mad at nothing, wishing more than anything that summer would end.

She grumbled her way up to her room. After shutting the door behind her, she collapsed onto her bed breathing in the comforting warmth until she realized, that her mother was right. She had a lot to do today. Sleeping should be near the end of her agenda. Ginny sat up cross-legged on her bed and hacked into the letter Pig had brought her

_Hey Gin!_

_Shakalakalakaaaaa...sorry. I'm in France right now and they have THE BEST ICE CREAM. I'm not kidding Ginny it's so fantastic I've had like...a LOT...it's so good good good good goooood I love it! Good!_

Ginny stared at the letter trying to laugh

_Anwaaaaays, I got my letter...not a prefect of course. Pffffft. Whatever. Hey, meet me in the Leaky Cauldron on the 28th. I need new everything. Mum almost slit my throat for growing so much. And all these French sluts are hitting on J.J. It's funny actually. Oh well. Mail me back about the 28th okay?_

_Love from Laura _

_P.S: YOU NEED TO TRY THIS ICE CREAM GIN._

Ginny stared at the letter, for several seconds, imagining what fun Laura must be having, until a word jumped out at her; _prefect_. Without thinking she dove for her Hogwarts envelope, stuck a tiny hand inside and fished around until- She gave a groan of detest and flipped over the envelope. A bright red badge with the letter _P_ positioned directly in the center shone up at her.

"Great..." she muttered, leafing through her Hogwarts letter for the section on prefects, "Just...great..." She found the page and smoothed it out on the bed. Heaving a sigh, she bent low to read it.

_**Congratulations New Prefect!** _

_Congratulations! You have been selected to start your fifth year as a Hogwarts prefect! Traditionally, two fifth years from each house are chosen as prefects each year. It is a great honor to be chosen as a Hogwarts prefect. Know that prefects have several duties, responsibilities, and if they are not abused- privileges. A detailed list of these duties, and a manual of instructions will be distributed to you once aboard the **H**ogwarts **E**xpress on September the 1st. Once on board please make your way to the Prefect's Compartment where your Head Boy and Girl will be waiting for you. They will give you further instructions. Good Luck New Prefect! _

_Sincerely,_

_Minerva McGonagall _

_Deputy Headmistress_

Like she had with the other, Ginny stared at this piece of paper for a long time, turning its contents over in her head. A mixture of emotions swept over her, and she was left confused. Finally she slammed the letter down and ripped the covers off her bed. Just as she was about to grab her pillow she felt something touch her foot and looked down to spot a third piece of paper, that seemed to have fallen out of her Hogwart's envelope.

_New This Year! _

_This year Hogwarts introduces a new award. Prefects, the only eligible candidates will be observed throughout the year. At the end of term, the prefect who has seemed to demonstrate the most honorable qualities will be presented will the **Hogwart's Award of Honorable Prefect Achievement**. Good Luck Prefects! _

_Sincerely, _

_Minerva McGonagall, _

_Deputy Headmistress_

After finishing what she hoped was the last letter Ginny set it down softly on her night stand. Right before she was about to finish making her bed she felt a jolt and turned around, automatically to face her letter. She picked it up, cradling it in her hands, and then making a decision, folded it five times before yanking open her sock drawer and burying it.

She spent the morning completing everything her mother had asked of her. When she had finished making her bed, and cleaning her room she set out a sleeping bag for Hermione before cutting the grass and feeding the chickens. When she was finished all of her housework, she wrote three potions essays, mastered the Engorgment Charm, caused her mother to scream bloody murder and run around the house in her bath robe when she turned the bathtub into an elephant and back, and translated several pages of Ancient Runes

"_Ginny_" came and irritable voice from behind her

"Mmmm?" she replied flipping through her text book

"Harry and I have been waiting _all daaaay_" Ron moaned like a two year old. She turned to face him, and Harry who was standing some five feet behind Ron squinting strangely. Ron was wearing a pleading look on his face, his bushy eyebrows turned outwards as he pouted "Please, Gin won't you just come play for twenty minutes?" he begged.

Flames exploded inside Ginny's mind and she heard a voice inside her speak.

_Shut up Ron, ugly git, filthy prat, associating with halfbloods, mudbloods, waste of my-_

"She can spare twenty minutes I suppose. The Quidditch team does need you three!" Mrs Weasley almost barked "Right Ginny dear?"

"What?...Oh...yeah...yeah..." Ginny said shakily absentmindedly running a hand over her forehead. Both boys were staring at her, though quite differently. Ron was blinking confusedly and tilting his head in wonderment..whilst Harry was staring at her so directly and unblinkingly it almost hurt. His mouth opened a little as though in discovery of something before Mrs. Weasley once again loudly brought them all back to reality

"Go on then!" she shouted from across the kitchen "I left your brooms out by the shed, and mind you don't fly too low or you'll be spotted!"

"Mum-" Ron groaned

"_That means you Ronald Weasley_" she snapped "Now, _scoot._" Ginny didn't need telling twice. Quickly, she bustled outside and found her broom leaning dully against the shed. She mounted it before either of the boys had even arrived and circled around the treetops. It was like breathing for the first time. ..

"Ginny!" Ron called several minutes later. She caught the quaffle in her arms and pulled into a dive where she dodged Harry and swerved from Ron scoring yet another goal into a tree, they had managed to warp into a sort of net using their wands.

"Yesssss!" she hissed sticking her hands in the air victoriously. She grinned as she passed her brother and circled higher before dropping the quaffle into Harry's outstretched arms. But just then, faster than blinking, she was gone. She did not exist. She was not there. She was not anywhere... Well she _was_ somewhere. She did in fact feel her feet on the ground. She could see long fingers in front of her face. She could move them...they were _her's..._

"Is it working?" Ginny whispered softly

"My Lord...there-there is no way to know for certain at this point in time." whimpered a terrified voice.

Ginny wanted to know where the voice was coming from...she could feel rather then hear it. And it was somewhere close. But all was dark

"Well find a way." she heard herself hiss "_Cru-"_

"GINNY!"


	3. Screaming Air And Surprise Guests

**Screaming Air and Surprise Guests**

She was dead...dead she had to be. Whoever she was right now was not alive...but there was light...and there were voices...maybe-

"RON!" she gasped sitting up and looking around. It felt strange to know her brother's face, to know the Burrow, to even have the faintest clue where she was...the sight of the place she had always called home suddenly seemed remarkably odd. But looking at Harry who was knelt next to Ron looking anxious...looking at Harry did not at all seem as unsettling.

"Bloody hell Gin what happened?" Fred asked helping her stand up

"Nothing..." she said automatically "N-nothing...I mean. I-I was tired, I guess...dozed...dozed off...I was tired." she said lamely.

Ron gave her a look somewhere in between pain, confusion and exasperation

"Then sleep Gin...is that difficult? _Sleep_. Don't come out here, and almost break your neck!. I mean if Fred hadn't been there to catch you-"

"Ah, but that's where you're forgetting something important as always little bro." said Fred who was grinning as usual. "Fred Weasley." he said, "Is always there when you need him. Keep your feet on the ground Gin." he said mysteriously before tapping his nose and gliding off in the direction of the house.

"What was he doing out here anyways?" Ginny asked almost suspiciously

"Telling _you_ that mum wants you inside." answered Ron

"She does?"

"Yeah she said you've been out for too long or something. And something about a prefect...and honor...and you...and Dumbledore...I don't know, Fred said she wasn't speaking clearly. Going on about something..."

Ginny felt the color die instantly from her face.

"I have to go inside." she said frantically

"Yeah that might be best." said Ron rolling his eyes.

Ginny didn't answer. She was already up the lawn. Halfway through the prospect of where to look for her mother once inside, Ginny wasn't paying attention to anything as she opened the door and nearly screamed when her mother charged at her with a slip of paper clutched in her plump hand.

"Ginny" she sobbed throwing herself on her daughter "My little Ginny a prefect! That's-"

"Everyone in the family." said George tonelessly. He approached from behind with a grin to match his twin's "That's what we've heard. Haven't disowned us just yet have you?"

"Oh _stop_" Mrs. Weasley cried through sobs

"How did you find out about this?" Ginny demanded. She eyed the paper in her mother's hand.

_Has she found out about the_-

"Oh won't it just be incredible when you win that award?"

Oh.

"Mum I might not win." she said quietly

"Oh balderdash, of course you will. Now go fix the upstairs up a bit would you? And wash up for dinner as well. We need to celebrate. I'm going to get started."

"God be with you." George muttered jokingly to his little sister as she started slowly down the hallway.

Ginny made her way up to her room, with no intentions of sleep. Simply blinking, seemed unappealing. She felt spent and jaded. The school year was yet to begin and already she had awards to think about winning. Without warning her stomach gave a hollow lurch as realization dawned on her; she wouldn't even have time to see Laura this year. Ginny doubted whether they were even in any of the same classes, and she dared not get her hopes up. Laura was unbelievably hilarious and most of her memories from the previous years had been of the two of them romping around and acting ridiculous, but Ginny knew that her best friend had neither the discipline nor the desire to take Honor's classes. Laura was much more of a free spirit. She took whatever came to her and she took it without disappointment or want for anything more then what god dropped on her plate. It hurt Ginny to think that there was a time when she was like that. Her door creaked open with an all too high sound.

"What?" she asked irritably before she even saw who was there

"Ginny dear..." said her mother lovingly, "I want you to put on some nice clothes for dinner."

"Why?" she grunted. Her mother stooped down to once again finger her long red hair "Mum don't." she said coldly "Really..mum stop!" she yelled slapping her mother's palm away more fiercely then she had intended. Her mother looked shocked and offended

"Y-young lady I-"

"Is there something you _want_ mum?" she asked loudly

"If you ever paid a shred of attention to me you would know there was!" she snapped sounding shaky and slightly deranged "I only want the best for you! Sometimes I think you're our only-"

"Mum..." Ginny interrupted quietly

"_What?"_

"I...I just meant...why do you want me to put on nice clothes?" she mumbled lamely.

Quickly Mrs. Weasley gathered up her own hair and pushed it around as though she needed something for her hands to be doing.

"I-I-I don't _know!_ I mean I _know_ that, _that_ was what you meant, I j-just mean...is it so horrible for you to look nice once and a while Ginny? Besides maybe we have company coming! You don't know! Sometimes you really need to stop acting like you're in charge of this household! I do work too you know! And there are some decisions that are made without going through you! And if I tell you to put nice clothes on you will because I am your mother and I love you, and it...it won't kill you to _socialize_ for once in your life will it!" she bellowed shrilly. Her face red from yelling she stood quavering and stumbled out of the room. Ginny waited until her mother was clearly a distance away before she opened her mouth and gave a bloodcurdling, energized scream. Its power echoed around her before returning and reverberating off the walls of her head only making her shriek louder.

Welcome to existence

As much as it angered Ginny to do so, she changed from her hoodie and jeans into an ugly skirt her mother was rather fond of and a black blouse. She left her hair down, and ran a brush through it a few times before examining herself in the mirror. She didn't like how she looked. It was almost as though beauty was teasing her. She looked like a girl with the capabilities of being at least a small bit pretty...only she didn't...she gave off the aura of someone who didn't know how.

"I'd much rather look like I don't care, then I don't know how" she thought with a bitter glance at her too-big sweater. But disobeying her mother did not even seem like an option. Running a single tiny finger through her hair, she looked around her room and found herself feeling contained and compressed. She needed to get out of that room even if it was only for five minutes. But her mother and entire family was downstairs, and from what Ginny gathered from her mother's dramatic speech, so was some sort of company. They would stop her for sure. And then it dawned on her what the insane thought running through her mind was.

I'll have to go out the window

And she did so. Quietly and smoothly she slipped out her bedroom window, clumsily propping it open with one of her many thick textbooks that were littering her bedroom. Balancing herself, she walked along the rain gutter avoiding the open windows, and trying to ignore the strong wind. She reached the drain pipe, and not allowing herself to be afraid she grabbed hold and slid down in one smooth motion.

"Wow..." she muttered to herself when she reached the bottom and stared around. Fourteen miles of nothingness, surrounded the Burrow. Looking in front of her Ginny could actually the feel the cold air entering her lungs and circulating through her system. The blue sky stroked the hilltops and ran teasingly around and up through the deep cannon of white misty clouds.

"_It is good to finally be back here with you..."_

Ginny gave a startled jump and peered over her shoulder. It had been a woman's voice who had spoken. But the Weasleys had no neighbors. And it had sounded like no girl Ginny knew...

"I have waited so long." said the voice breathlessly

"Whose there?" Ginny yelled trying to sound intimidating

"Why do you not speak to me? H-have I displeased you in some way?" the voice said shaking for the first time

"I am speaking to you!" she barked "Who _are _you?"

"You look at me as though you do not even know me..." the voice mumbled quietly...but Ginny could hear it loud and clear.

"Who is that? Laura?" she called wildly "Is that you?...I'm not looking at you! I don't even know where you''re coming from!"

"T-tell what I have d-done wrong!" the voice cried shakily _"I swear to you I shall fix my mistake! Give me another chance!"_

the voice cried shakily 

"I don't even know you!" Ginny yelled frightened. She stumbled to the left, trying to escape the voice. "Who _are_ you?"

"Will you not do the honor of simply facing me?" the voice said in a dead whisper. But Ginny could still hear it. It was still deathly loud.

"Stop it!" she screamed now running quickly in a random direction "Get away from me!"

"PLEASE FORGIVE ME! PLEASE I WILL DO BETTER! I WILL NOT DISAPPOINT YOU AGAIN! MA-"

"Ginny! What on Earth are you doing out there?" Mrs. Weasley snapped "It's time for dinner! Get inside now and wash that filth off your hands!"

Ginny cricked her neck as she turned startled, to face her mother. She was breathing fast, and made a point of saying nothing in response... but... the voice was gone.

"How did you even get out here with out me realizing?" her mother continued "I would have stopped you. You haven't even greeted our company yet. That is no way for you to be acting. Now _get _inside!"

"O...ok-kay..." she stammered prolonging every step she took still glancing wildly around the field surrounding her searching for the culprit of her unease... "Mum, who are we having for dinner anyways?" she asked as her mother shut the door behind the two of them and headed up and flight of stairs. "Someone from the Order?"

"No, no they're all busy at Headquarters. Your father and I are only staying here until you kids are back at school, it was far too much of a hassle to have you living at-"

"Mum _who_ is coming to dinner tonight?" Ginny interrupted rudely. Mrs. Weasley turned a dark shade of pink and hurried in front of her daughter.

"Don't ask me silly questions. Wash your hands and go into the kitchen. Everyone's already there."

Ginny felt a pang of annoyance but ignored it. She watched her mother pass her and make her way cautiously into the kitchen only after dusting herself up and putting her nose into the air. Who was here that was so important? Ginny wondered many things irritably as she combed the dirt of her hands using her small bitten fingernails. She dried them off using the pink towel, that always resided by the sink before stepping into the kitchen not bothering to dust herself off, or put her nose in the air.

"Ginny!" her father cried breathlessly, when she entered. "Good!"

Ginny scanned the table...Harry, Fred, Ron, George, her mother, her father...and-

"Hermione?" Ginny said in disbelief "You're the company that I got all dressed up for?"

Hermione looked highly affronted

"What? N-no...I didn't think my arriving would be...I come every year though! I'm not company am I?" she said timidly

"Wait we didn't have some big fancy dinner when_ I_ got here!" exclaimed Harry

"Little sad about that mate?" Fred asked with a wink, and Harry grinned.

"No, it's just odd. Hermione isn't _company_-"

"Of course she is!" Mrs. Weasley snapped. "Now all of you stop being so rude and you had better be polite when the guests arrive I'm warning you-"

"So I'm _not_ the guest-"

"Of course you're not the guest you come every year!" Ron chortled

"That's what I _said_-" Hermione started in an exasperated voice.

"ENOUGH!" Mr. Weasley bellowed suddenly. The table fell silent. "Now everyone...please just sit...and don't talk...and please..._please_ be nice..." he pleaded. Ginny could tell she wasn't the only one who was unbelievably confused, but she was also not the only one to keep her mouth shut. She cocked her eyebrow at Harry who gave a confused shrug. Moments passed in silence...until-

_knock, knock_

"I'll get it." George grunted, obliviously

"You will not!" his mother snapped "You will sit down!" George opened his mouth a little before lowering his body back into the seat. Mr. Weasley rushed down the long hallway and the door creaked open. There were voices...the sound of jackets be hung...laughter...then footsteps. Everyone strained their ears harder then ever, and kept unimaginably still as the footsteps gradually moved towards them. And then the door opened. Mr. Weasley was standing there, pink eared looking deathly nervous. A blonde haired woman who looked to be counting her teeth with her tongue, stood next to him. A man; presumably her husband was standing before them all looking impressive. At least a head taller then Mr. Weasley, he had hair to match his wife's and an oddly shaped nose. He looked quite important...but at least he was smiling. And then there was a boy who looked roughly Ginny's or Ron's age. He was standing timidly a few steps behind his father glancing around the table.

"E-everyone," choked Mr. Weasley "This..._this_ is Alfred Prang...the new...Minister for Magic."


	4. A Boring Boy And An Accomplishment For T...

**A Boring Boy And An Accomplishment For The Weasley Parents **

"And Ginny!" Mrs. Weasley added, edging eagerly forward, "_This_ is Migell...the Minister's son."

Ginny felt ten pairs of eyes burn into her.

"Yeah hi," she said rudely "So...what's going on?"

Ron looked ultimately relieved that it hadn't been him who had asked the question. He gave a vigorous nod and stared at his parents. Mr. Weasley gave a nervous laugh

"The Minister, is dining with us tonight." he answered in a high voice.

"Any particular reason?" Fred blurted out

Mrs. Weasley made towards her son, but when she became level with him, she seemed unaware of what to do next.

"We enjoy having house guests!" she insisted, awkwardly patting him on the shoulder as George stifled his snort

"Yes." the Minister added in a low voice. "I am very pleased with Arthur at work. He's one of the only decent ones we have left. And the Ministry needs some serious rearranging. Rehiring, firing, demoting, promoting..."

"_Oh"_ Ginny thought to herself. Both of her parents had flinched at the word "promoting". Mr. Weasley, who was now very pink stumbled to pull out some chairs for their new guests... Ginny touched her hair nervously. She found it very odd that the Minister and his family were staring at _her_.

"So!" said Mrs. Weasley shrilly, "Dinner then...yes...all right! Potatoes Minister?"

"Certainly." he replied with a sideways glance at Ginny "And please Molly, call me Alfred."

"Oh..." she blushed "All..all right Alfred."

"So Ginny." said Mr. Weasley strongly as the food slowly passed around the enormous table, "Migell is starting his fifth year as well you know!"

The boy called Migell gave a small nod and a weak smile which Ginny returned reluctantly...she was still suspicious. Why did she care what year he was going into?

"That's...great..." she said slowly. Fred and George seemed to be the only ones who got the sarcasm.

"Yes. And he too is taking Honor's Classes." said Mrs. Weasley encouragingly.

"Erm...how unbelievably coincidental."she replied. George gave a snort at the other end of the table. The Minister gave a nod.

"Yes." he said in his low voice. "As much as I want my son to have the best education possible he's never quite had the _grades_ for Honour's Classes..." his eyes widened in Ginny's direction.

She blinked.

"So..._is_ he taking Honor's Classes?" she asked confusedly

"Stop saying _Honor's classes_." exclaimed Fred "The words are losing all meaning."

Ginny coughed through laughter, lowering her glass of milk as Mrs. Weasley looked ready to spit fire. The Minister disregarded all this and continued as though nothing had happened.

"Well yes. My connections and place at the Ministry proved important enough to squeeze him through the cracks...but I was hoping that perhaps before he plunges straight into them...you could perhaps tutor him a bit Ginny? Maybe prepare him for the classes?"

The table was utterly motionless. Everyone stared unblinkingly at Ginny who simply did not understand. Prepare him? How was she supposed to do that when she Ginny had never taken the classes herself? But then...what was she going to say to the Minister of Magic? No?

"Erm...of-of course I will..."

The Minister beamed.

"Excellent. So Tuesday then?"

Ginny gave a startled jump

"What? No! I-I mean, no Minister I can't Tuesday."

"What?" Mrs. Weasley hissed sharply "Why on Earth not?"

"I'm going to Diagon Alley!"

"You are to no such thing! You _never_ mentioned this to me! _Never_!"

"I figured you had more important things to be worrying about." she said coldly.

"Ginny Weasley I-"

"It doesn't matter!" Mr. Weasley cried nervously "Not a problem I''m sure!"

"No, of course it isn't Arthur." he Minister said kindly "Some other time then?"

Just as Ginny was about to nod or grunt in approval she heard her mother's high voice-

"How about tomorrow!"

"Mum-"

"Tomorrow would be perfect Molly!"

"_Mum-"_

"Tomorrow then Ginny?" her father asked, a pleading look plastered onto his face

"I...fine...tomorrow." she caved.

Ginny sat through the rest of dinner as silent as she dared to be, pushing her uneaten third helping of pumpkin pie around on her plate, not stupid enough to ask to be excused.

"So, I suppose that was quite an interesting year, when we lived in Europe." Alfred nodded tucking into his own third helping. "Migell really enjoyed it there...didn't you 'Gell?" he asked playfully punching his son's arm.

"What? I mean...yeah...okay dad.." he mumbled.

"But of course we had to come back. I mean a few years at Durmstrang is all well and good, especially when 'Gell hadn't even started Hogwarts yet and he didn't really have any friends there. But I couldn't let him stay at that school with that nutcase. He would've grown into a death eater." Alfred continued with a superior point of his finger "Hogwarts will always be the best. And of course now that times have changed I would never send him back there. In fact I myself don't think it's a bad idea to murge _all_ the magical schools so Dumbledore can keep an eye on _all_ the children. It would certainly keep them all much safer."

The twins were wearing identical expressions of exhaustion, that were only half visible as with every second their faces fell further into their hands. Hermione was nodding off to the wall, as both Ron and Harry seemed to be sleeping with their eyes open. They were both staring, motionless off into space not blinking at all.

"_Ginny..." _whispered a voice quietly in her ear.

"What mum?" she muttered back

"I want you to...very politely... excuse yourself and go upstairs...and finish your potion's essay." she said breathing quite quickly.

Too tired to argue, Ginny waited until Alfred took a break from his speech to shovel down more pie before standing up slowly.

"I'm sorry but I have a lot of homework I really should get to work on." she said fluttering her eyelashes. "Mum could I be excused?"

"Of course dear." her mother beamed falsely

"It was so nice to meet you." Ginny said exaggerating every syllable. She made her way over to the Minister who stuck out a pudgy hand. Ginny grabbed it politely and moved their hands up and down as the Minister grunted

"I guess we'll be seeing you around Ginny!" and gave a wink

"Erm, yeah." she said turning away and rolling her eyes up to the ceiling. "Nice to meet you both as well." she added shaking hands with the Minister's wife and son, before turning on her heel and rushing up the stairs. She threw herself down onto the bed crushing her face up against the soft pillow, entwining the blanket through her legs and arms until she was buried somewhere in her bed inhaling the long awaited comfort of sleep.

"Wake UP you git wake UP!"

"Aaaarrrgh!" Ginny hollered, her dreams slipping away "_Fred_!"

"Shut up, or mom'll come in here and pull my pancreas out through my nostrils!" Fred hissed putting a hand to her mouth. "I just have some information you might want." he raised his eyebrows mysteriously.

"What do you-...wait..." Ginny groaned sitting up in bed "Fred it's still _dark_ out! What _time_ is it?"

"About eleven thirty you lucky prat. And the rest of us have only _just_ escaped."

"Escaped from what?" she asked annoyed

"_Dinner_ genius." Fred grinned "I swear even that Minister man was getting tired. I had to bite my tongue till it bled to keep myself from telling him that Britain is IN Europe." He shook his head

"I know." Ginny grinned back "I mean I myself stopped caring about his family heritage about halfway through his elaborate speech."

"Yeah George almost choked on his own vomit when he started going on about how that kid Migell was conceived right by the Grand Canyon."

Ginny shuddered and tied her hair back into a sloppy ponytail using the elastic she always kept around her wrist

"Yeah, he can talk that one...so what's this information you've got for me brother dearest?"

"Well!" said Fred proudly "I'll have you know, it's worth a lot! I had to do a fair bit of eavesdropping to get my hands on it, and the old Extendables only take you so far." he said wiggling a piece of flesh colored string in between two of his fingers. Ginny glared at him.

"_Well?_ Did you come up here just to tell me all that and not tell me the _information_?"

"Well what's in it for me?" he asked slyly. Ginny grinned at his cockiness.

"I don't exactly have anything to _offer_ you." she laughed

"Ooooh I see." he nodded "Fresh outta cash? Tradeables? Juicy gossip? Can't pedal me some secrets?"

"Fresh out." she replied

"Hmmm...tricky customer." he said putting a finger to his chin. "Well I'll tell you what Gin. You guarantee me that you make sure Gryffindor doesn't lose the Quidditch Cup the first year me and George are away from school? I'll give you your information."

Ginny giggled.

"Okay, okay I guarantee it!" she said loudly "Now tell me!"

"All right!" said Fred taking a long dramatic breath..."Ahem...you have...a boyfriend."

This startled Ginny a little bit. And her first thought was that Fred must be building to something. Saying one thing and implying something else. It was a play on words, a metaphor. It was anything but what he had just said.

"What?" she asked confusedly

"I've been listening to mum and dad going on about it all day." he dove on, "Apparently, the Minister wants a girl for his boy Migell. And they agreed to set you two up. Oh, and mum thinks you make an _adorable_ couple!" he cooed putting on his mother's shrill voice.

"So wait?" said Ginny hardly daring to believe it "Is _that_ what tomorrow is supposed to be?"

Fred gave a shrug

"Your guess is as good as mine Gin. But my guess is...hell _yes._"

"But he seemed like a complete _prat_!" she cried angrily "He barely even _spoke_ to me! Is he in on this too or just his parents?"

"From what I heard I don't think he knows." Fred answered. "But chances are he'll find out by tomorrow. And chances are he'll think you were in on this too."

"Oh shiiiit!" Ginny moaned falling back onto her bed.

"So...has this information proved useful to you?" he asked in a business like tone.

"Yeah...yeah...very useful." she muttered absentmindedly

"I'll go then." Fred yawned standing up. "If you hear a loud thump within the next few seconds, it's just me collapsing of exhaustion in the hall."

Ginny didn't answer. And within seconds he was gone. They had done it. They had finally done it. They had been reaching, and reaching...and reaching with all the strength they could possibly muster. But tonight they managed it. Tonight they had actually grasped full control of their daughter's life. What an accomplishment.

Everyone's here

And with that last bitter thought Ginny rolled over and fell immediately to sleep...open windows and high laughter haunting her already miserable dreams.


	5. Dating

**Dating**

"Eggs Ginny dear? Toast, bacon, kippers? We have some fresh blueberries. Now I know that you _love_ blueberries."

"Erm no thanks mum...I doubt my suddenly gaining fifty pounds will impress the Minister's son."

Mrs. Weasley who was dishing scrambled eggs onto her daughter's plate, regardless of her words grew red and looked away.

"I don't know what you mean. We're not trying to impress anyone. You're just going to give him some help with his homework..." But then a small grin grew onto her face as she clumsily handed George the frying pan. "Oh but he really _did_ seem like he liked your father didn't he? I mean I'm not foolish enough to get my hopes up but...if your father did get promoted..."

Fred, George and Ginny all rolled their eyes

"Mum-"

"We could buy so many new things!"

"Mum-"

"There's so much we _need_" Mrs Weasley rambled, "And with Ginny starting Honor's Classes...I mean the last person we had in those was Bill and I remember we almost went broke that year we had to buy all of his things and Fudge already wasn't too fond of your father at that time because of the whole belching teapots incident and-"

"MUM!" the three of them yelled together just as Harry and Ron walked into the kitchen.

"What?" Mrs. Weasley asked irritably George rolled his eyes

"Oh nothing, we'd just hate to see what havoc would be unleashed if you _were_ getting your hopes up..." he grinned, liquefying his eggs with two forks

"Stop that!" his mother scolded. She swatted him in the head and turned to Harry and Ron as they took their seats. "I want the three of you to practice a bit more today." Mrs. Weasley nodded, addressing Ginny, Ron and Harry. "The team-"

"Needs us." Ron grunted, "We get it, okay mom?" His eyes flashed for a microsecond to his little sister before returning to his uneaten breakfast that he began to carelessly shovel down his throat

"Does anyone _know_ who the new captain is this year?" Harry asked beginning to eat a bit more politely than Ron.

"Barry Watkins" Ron choked out. Ginny threw her hands in front of her face, shielding it from the chewed up eggs and spit.

"Barry...Barry...that new beater?"

"Yeah," Ron nodded giving a prolonged swallow. "I've never met him. I don't think anyone has except Angelina. That was smart of her you know. Filling in the positions on the last day of school...saves us the hassle of tryouts."

"It's sad that she's gone though." added Ginny "She was a great captain."

Just then the doorbell gave a piercing double ring and Mrs. Weasley dropped the spoon she was holding.

"Gracious!" she hollered jumping up "They're here early! Ginny! Go get the door! _Greet your guest!_" Ginny gave a lazy breath and stood up, random profanities flowing defiantly through her mind. "And _Ginny_!" her mother adding swatting at a nonexistent bug on her daughter's hip.

Ginny swung around sporting a dark and annoyed look on her face

"What?" she asked in a voice she didn't dare to give a tone for the simple reason that she knew it would be a rude one. Feeling irritated she watched as her mother peered anxiously to the front door and then back at Ginny

"Be _nice_"

Ginny answered by turning back around to the door and rolling her eyes to the ceiling before trudging carelessly down the hall and yanking the door open.

"Yo." she said before she even saw who was there.

"Yo, yourself." growled a low voice Ginny recognized. Her head snapped to attention staring through the door

"Mad Eye!" she said surprised "And...Migell...you're...you're _both_ here...great...what are you doing here Mad Eye?"

"I need to talk to your father, he hasn't left for work yet has he?" Mad Eye said hopefully glancing down the hall towards the kitchen

"Actually he hasn't even come downstairs yet." Ginny shrugged "You can go in and have a seat, I'm sure he'll be down soon. Mum'll be pleased to see you. Everyone's in the kitchen."

Mad Eye gave her a hearty wink with his magical eye before slumping down the hallway, leaving Ginny and Migell standing awkwardly opposite each other.

"So..." Ginny said in a croaky voice as she glanced at his unappealing eyes and boring nose. "You can come in I guess...and we'll head up to my room." Migell stepped inside the house reluctantly, although his shoulders had seemed to relax a bit more after Mad Eye left their presence.

"Who was that man?" he asked Ginny as the two of them started up the staircase

"He works for the Ministry..." she said shortly. She felt offended and annoyed that Migell felt so scared of Mad Eye, and for that and many other reasons she didn't embellish on her statement. And on some level she felt that it was good Mad Eye frightened him and not her. It made her feel strangely superior to this boy in a way that higher grades never seemed to manage.

"Oh..." he replied slowly.

Ginny kicked open the door to her tiny bedroom. The bed was unmade and the floor was covered in tiny bits of food and dirt. Random textbooks and articles of clothing were strewn all over the room and a muggle television that her father had scampered eagerly into her room with, to explain to Ginny how it worked, was lying on it's side somewhere near the middle of the room. The screen was cracked a few minuscule shards of glass were lying dangerously next to it. Ginny yawned and shrugged in response to Migell's silence.

"I like it." she said simply.

"I do too." he smiled, sitting down on the bed.

Ginny felt a pang of annoyance. She hadn't told him he was allowed to sit there. Not that she really cared but what did he know? She _could_ care. And she also would have been much happier if he had said he didn't like her room. She did not find comfort or enjoyment out of the fact that she had anything in common with this boy.

"So...should we get started?" she said in a bored voice.

Migell's eyes darted towards her

"Started? Why? What are we going to do?"

"Study." Ginny replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world

He gave a weak laugh.

"Okay, if you want I guess we could study."

"The reason you _came over here_ was to study." Ginny said irritably although she knew that he probably thought that was untrue.

"Yeah..." he said as though he hadn't really heard what she said, "You know I was really glad when my dad asked us out." he said with the trace of a laugh "I really had no idea about it." Something in his voice made Ginny sure he was telling the truth. All right. So he hadn't known about this. He had been just as uninformed as she had been. In fact thanks to Fred she probably knew a bit more... "I mean that's not the way I would have liked to ask you out...but at least it happened. I've liked you for a while now..." he said weakly

What was this? Was the moron trying to be romantic? Was he cocky or just stupid? He had managed to interpret this as a date without any outside help... Both then. Okay, so she was the only one who didn't think this was a date. She knew it was _supposed_ to be a date...well whatever. There was nothing she could do anymore. It was a date to everyone else. She might as well play along. For a little while anyways. Besides, it wasn't like she really had a choice.

"I like you too." she lied.

He grinned.

"Really?" he asked disbelievingly

"Sure..." she responded lamely.

This kid isn't even worth my words. How would I have liked him? I met him yesterday! How does he like me? Has he been stalking me at school or something? Okay, that's it. The next fake date we have, I'm dumping this freak...well no I can't...mum would kill me...and dad might not get promoted...how did I get roped into this? Okay...I'll just...say I'm against physical contact with the opposite sex...and that I'm getting laryngitis and I shouldn't talk past 10AM...

The morning pasted unbelievably slowly. As Migell's dad would be picking him up at noon the only thing Ginny was looking forward too was a lunch free of the stupid kid. She wasn't really sure why she disliked him. It wasn't as though he had done anything incredibly rude or disrespectful to her. There was just something about him that made her want to gag. Maybe it was that her parents liked him so much, she wasn't sure. But whatever hidden quality it was that she hated about them, it was there and it was one of his most pronounced and distinct qualities come to that. Once Migell got talking, he was not only boring, but self absorbed and reasonlessly irritating. Ginny spent most of the morning, up in her room listening to him talk and occasionally nodding or saying something like "Mmmmm" or "Uh huh...". She had to admit she'd been surprised. As much as she had disliked him from the moment she laid eyes on him, she hadn't at all expected him to be so self absorbed. She couldn't stop herself wondering, why if he liked her so much didn't he want to know anything about her? Why did he ask no questions? Of course it wasn't like Ginny was especially eager to answer anything, or talk to him at all. When at last, the clock struck twelve and her mother gave a shrill holler Ginny hurried out of the room with Migell at her heels. She could see the Minister of Magic talking animatedly with her mother at the front door, and she quickened her pace...


	6. Fading

**Fading**

"Hey 'Gel!" his father exclaimed when Migell showed up a few steps behind Ginny. "Ginny, a pleasure as always." he said shaking her hand

"Thank you sir." she replied not knowing what else to say.

"Well this was fun." Migell said to her softly "Maybe we could do it again sometime?" He gave her a hopeful smile and the three of them stared at her.

"Sure, fine, that's be wonderful." she grunted. No one got the sarcasm. But then it wasn't like she had expected them to.

A smile grew onto Migell's face and Ginny felt her mother's hands drive into her shoulders.

"How _adorable_!" she blurted out.

"Mum-" Ginny warned

"Right, right I'm sorry. Goodbye then Alfred. Migell. I'm sure we'll be hearing from you soon!" she beamed.

He returned the smile and exited curtly with his father. Not but a second after the door had been slammed Ginny pried herself from her mother's grip.

"How was your date?" Mrs. Weasley asked still grinning

"Mum, you know I wasn't really aware that this was supposed to be a _date._" Ginny said quietly

"What do you mean?"

"What do I _mean_?" she asked temper rising once more "What I _mean_ is that when a boy's _father_ asks you if you'll help him study, it isn't usually interpreted as a date."

"Well I'm sorry!" Mrs. Weasley snapped "What is it that you kids _do_ on dates today then?"

"We don't _study_ mum!" Ginny cried pleadingly

"Well, lord Ginny! Migell understood what his father was implying! I got it, your father got it!"

"GOT IT?" Ginny screamed "It was YOUR IDEA!"

"It was not MY IDEA!" Mrs. Weasley bellowed, "Alfred was the one who asked US if it would be all right if the two of you went out on a date-"

"We didn't _go out on a date!_ We didn't even _GO_ anywhere!"

"And we said it was fine! And he told us that he would probably have to make the move because his boy is a little _shy!_ All we thought was it'd be nice for you to have someone! We did this for you!"

"Bullshit! You did it so dad would get promoted!"

"THAT IS UNACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOR! BESIDES, YOU'RE THE ONE WHO AGREED TO THE DATE IN THE-"

"I WOULDN'T HAVE EVEN KNOWN IT WAS A DATE IF IT WASN'T FOR FRED EAVESDROPPING!"

"HE _WHAT_?"

"AT LEAST HE CARES ABOUT ME!"

Mrs. Weasley froze.

"You take that _back_ Ginny." she said shakily

"Which part?" she spat coldly

"You _know_ I care about you. We just thought that you would enjoy some company. And Migell's liked you for so long-"

"He's never even _spoken_ to me mum!" she insisted, her voice breaking

"We just thought-"

"Well fine mum." Ginny said in a defeated voice. "But tell me. If you did this for my benefit then what would you say if I told you I didn't want to go out with him again?"

Mrs. Weasley turned beat red.

"Ginny...for the simple reason that...if the only reason you don't want to continue dating Migell is out of spite then that is an awful thing to do. You really seemed to like him!"

"Mum I was only-"

"I'm not going to let us miss out on this!" she cried turning red again

"_Us_?"

"You! I mean _you_! You know what I mean! And he is a _nice boy_ and you are going to keep seeing him! You're not going to miss out on an opportunity just because you're mad that your mother _likes_ your boyfriend! You could do a lot worse Ginerva, and don't think, I don't know that there are hardly any nice boys out there anymore! I will not have you wind up with some-

some-"

"Some _what_?" Ginny shrieked almost laughing

"GO TO YOUR ROOM!"

Deafening silence cut through the hallway as Ginny sliced her eyes at her mother. And then she turned around silently and jogged up the stairs, taking them four at a time. When she reached her room she fell face down onto her tiny bed and sobbed...

Ginny did not cry for long. In fact, seconds after she stopped, she despised herself for offering herself such self-pity. She couldn't be the girl who cried over every stupid argument she had with her mother. Feeling that it would be best to keep herself busy, Ginny set to work on one of her last Potion's essay's. Several hours later, her hand ached with numbness, but she did not let herself stop writing. She was supposed to be smart. The smartest of the Weasleys. The smartest of her year. What kind of smart girl couldn't even finish a stupid essay? A loud knocking sound cut through her thoughts. Ginny jumped and turned to the door.

"Come in." she grunted returning to her homework

"Mum told me to tell you dinner's ready." came George's voice.

She let his meaningless words flow cooly past her.

"Joy..." Ginny responded not looking up from her paper.

There was a long pause

"Hey are you okay?" George asked finally

"Peachy." said Ginny shortly, still not facing her brother "Why?" She could tell he was shrugging.

"I dunno. I just heard you and mum yelling is all..."

"Not like it's the first time." she said flatly, turning to face her brother. A grin spread across his face

"Too true, little one." he agreed slapping her on the shoulder. Ginny felt blood seep onto her tongue as she slowly bit into the inside of her bottom lip. It was a game to him now. "In the rink weighing in at four pounds it's our very own Ginny Weasley!" he yelled jokingly using his fist as a microphone "And opposite her, weighing in at a hell of a lot more then Ginny it's our very own- mum! The ref reads the topic of discussion...and oooohhh the crowd goes _wild_! Today they'll be arguing over the boy who Ginny either did or did not go out on a date with!"

"George-"

"Intrigue! Danger! Suspense! Everyone in the crowd is on their f-"

"GEORGE!" she screamed over him George paused.

"Miss Ginny Weasley has called for a time out!" he said, his announcer's voice fading away "What's up?"

"What's for dinner?" she asked putting away her essay

"I don't know...some sort of weird looking meat, served with an equally weird looking vegetable, topped off with some ugly goop."

"Sounds appetizing." Ginny laughed

"Yes, tres delicious." George nodded raising his eyebrows. "Let's not miss out, shall we?"

He stood up dramatically offering Ginny his hand which she took, standing up with a smile. She headed down the stairs feeling considerably happier, though she wasn't really sure why


	7. Caving In

**Caving In**

Ginny slumped down the staircase after her brother. She wasn't angry anymore. She truly wasn't. Her anger had morphed into bitterness a while ago. It was true she didn't WANT to date Migell. But she could definitely see why she should. And as much as the situation pained her, she was beginning to think maybe she was the one who was wrong. Maybe _she_ was being selfish to feel mad about helping her family in improving their social status, and perhaps even getting her father a promotion. And even though Ginny knew it wasn't as though Migell was the nicest guy on the planet... in fact he was far from it. But he wasn't horrible. Having a boring face wasn't as bad as having an ugly one. Being self absorbed wasn't worse then being cruel and unkind. There was nothing, now that Ginny thought about it that was directly _wrong_ with him. Nothing horrible enough to give her an excuse _not_ to date him. And although Ginny would never describe him as her mother had...as a _"nice boy"_, really he wasn't the worst person on the planet. She could have done a lot worse. No, now the only thing making Ginny miserable were the thoughts confirming that she was the selfish one. She had been wrong. But perhaps it was nothing new. She was beginning to wonder if all the times she spent shaking her head, laughing at the ignorance of the world she had been on the wrong end. Maybe there was something wrong with her, maybe she was the one who didn't fit. It sickened her. She felt dirty and stupid and worthless. And she was not even distantly aware how skewed her vision and judgement were starting to become...

Ginny entered the kitchen and glanced at the table, startled at how empty it was. When George had come to retrieve her she'd figured that she was the only one they were awaiting, before beginning dinner. But the table was virtually empty. Hermione was shredding carrots by the counter and Fred was lying on the floor writing up some sort of new price list. The room was otherwise deserted.

"Ginny, good." Mrs. Weasley remarked avoiding eye contact. She was standing at the stove stirring some thick brown liquid. Ginny glanced at the liquid, then at her mother feeling guilty. George raised his eyebrows to his sister, then gave the goop a shifty look before winking and sitting down to help his twin

"Mum?" Ginny asked approaching Mrs. Weasley slowly

"Mmm?"

""Mum, I''m really sorry." Ginny mumbled. Her voice was hollow and cold. And she meant what she said. Her mother turned to face her, eyes shining with tears.

"Oh, _Ginny"_ she exclaimed engulfing her in a hug. "It's quite all right. I forgive you for snapping at me. I think it's the pressure of having so much work to do still. This is why you really should have finished it earlier. You wouldn't be yelling at your family for no reason."

Flames of outrage exploded in Ginny's stomach. But she simply shuddered and pushed them down.

"You're right." she said bitterly. And she meant it. She sat down shakily at the kitchen table and glanced around. Just then, Ron and Harry walked in the door, covered in mud and sweat. "Where were you?" Ginny asked over her mother's squawks and attempts to wipe both boys clean.

"Practicing." Ron shrugged in response

"Didn't think to ask me did you?"she inquired more coldly then she had intended. But saying it so coldly felt wonderful. Ron shrugged again and looked away. He hadn't asked her to practice with them since the previous day when she had plummeted off her broom. "Don''t worry about me. Okay?" Ginny said sharply.

"I wasn't...we didn't..." Ron muttered tapping his plate with his fork.

"Hey! _Don't_ worry about me. _Ever_. I'm fifteen. I'm not your fucking baby sister anymore Ronald. I'll worry about _myself_. I'm not even in school yet and I've done more work then _you_ did in _your_ fifth year! I don't need you telling me if I'm fit to play quidditch or not! _All right_?"

Ron, the twins and Harry gawked at her, but she didn't care. She wanted to forget her fall yesterday. More importantly, she wanted to forget what had caused her fall yesterday. But most of all she wanted Ron to stop worrying about her in any way shape or form. No one else ever worried about her. Not _really. _Why the hell should he? She was not worth worrying over and really she just wanted not to be looked at for once. She wanted to be normal which she clearly was not. She didn't know what she wanted. But being worried over was not on her list. Ginny smacked herself in the eye to hold back the tears she felt coming on. _Why_ was she crying?

"Sorry..." he muttered still goggling at his sister.

"Well good." she almost barked. "_Good." _

Everyone''s here

"Have you found out yet why this is happening?" Ginny hissed in a voice that was licked with hatred

"N-no...I...I mean..." someone from beneath a mask choked in a whisper

"_What_ do you mean? Do you mean to tell me you have failed me _once again_?"

"No!" the masked man squealed "N-no mas-"

"It is happening right now! I feel it! I can _sense_ it! It seems to me, that _you_ Wormtail are seemingly unaware of my strengths! I'm just an ignorant boob is that correct Wormtail?"

"_No!"_ The man called Wormtail repeated, in a yelp of sheer terror "N-no! You are-"

"SILENCE!" Ginny screamed. "You will find out what this is. And you will find out why it is happening. I do not know what it is. But I unlike _you_ Wormtail, am intelligent enough to know that it is not good."

"I-I know Master!" Wormtail gasped "Not good! Not good at all!"

Liquid streamed from his eyes as he wagged his head insanely. Ginny adored how frightened the idiot was...but she would have given up that wonderful feeling of adoration to simply know WHO he was. Her eyes rolled around with pleasure in her skull as she raised her wand, giving an absolutely deranged grin. WHY was she smiling? WHAT was about to happen? She gave her long wand a prolonged raise watching Wormtail cower and writhe with fear. But then she looked up. That was not her wand. No more was it her hand. She gave a strangled cry as she felt her stomach give a lurch. She jagged her hand, almost dropped the wand jerkily and stood up, not having the slightest idea what to do next. She looked around frantically, as she felt tears form in her eyes.

"M-master?" Wormtail asked daring to raise himself off the floor in the slightest... Ginny whipped around. Her wand was still raised.

"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?" she screamed "WHAT DID YOU SAY?"

"I said GINNY WAKE THE HELL UP!"


	8. An Owl From The New Guy

**An Owl From The New Guy**

Ginny shot up in her bed and peered anxiously around the room.

"Some wicked nightmare you must have been having" said Harry from somewhere to her left. She gave a startled bounce and snapped to face him. He was sitting on the edge of her small bed, still in his pajamas. His skin looked unimaginably pale. Except for his scar. His scar seemed strangely definite today. Although Ginny couldn't often see it as Harry kept running his fingers over his forehead almost obsessively.

"What?" she asked shortly

"Sorry to wake you..." he mumbled, seemingly distracted by a hole in Ginny's wall.

"HARRY!" she yelled loudly. He snapped to attention.

"What?"

"_What?"_

"What? OH! It's...I just got..." he reached a shaking hand into his pocket and pulled out an official looking envelope "And...and I was wondering..did you...I mean did you get one?"

"No." she replied bewildered "What _is_ it?"

He fingered, the open envelope anxiously

"Harry?" she asked "What _is_ it?"

About a nanosecond after Ginny finally gave up and swiped her hand towards Harry's letter in a desperate attempt to for once, know what was going on, an enormous brown owl flew clumsily in through the broken window and collided with her bed post.

"Argh!" cried Harry jerking his hand into the air. His eyes snapped to the floor at the flash of deep brown. Immediately Ginny lost interest in Harry's letter. She wasn't the only one. The forgotten parchment lay on the worn floor as the two of them crawled cautiously across the bed. Ginny stretched out her fingers and carefully untied the knot, binding the yellowish envelope to the owl's scaly feet. It snapped, less than affectionately at Ginny's finger before ruffling his feathers proudly and soaring back out the window.

"It's from Hogwarts." Ginny shrugged tossing aside the envelope and ripping out the contents. "At least...wait it _said_ it was from Hogwarts..." she mumbled confusedly, furrowing her brow. She fingered the official looking envelope. It was very different from the letter, which was scrawled in thick, untidy green writing. It had obviously been written by someone completely different.

"It is." said Harry plainly. "I got one too." he waved his own letter through the air with a hint of bitterness. "It's about quidditch."

Ginny felt her face turn scarlet with heat. Automatically she feared the worst. Attacking her letter with her nails, she picked it up and slammed it against the faded wallpaper, her eyes flashing horrified, across it.

"Don't worry, it hasn't been cancelled or anything like that." Harry commented.

Still locked in a state of disbelieving suspicion, Ginny didn't look up from the parchment.

Hey Team

It''s me Barry! The new guy I guess you could say! Wow it feels odd to be addressing you all when I've never met most of you. I'm sure we'll get along great. I can't believe I'm captain of a team I've never worked with before, I'm not sure I'm worthy. Anyways, the real reason I'm writing this, is because-well- I'm at_ Hogwarts...- _

at 

"He's AT Hogwarts? You can DO that?" Ginny blurted out

"Just keep reading." Harry answered shortly

Still amazed, Ginny returned to the letter.

...I got an owl from Dumbledore about three weeks back. All the captains did. It's this new thing they're starting this year. Well actually I shouldn't really call it a thing, as I think it's just for this year. The idea for making it an annual thing is still being debated. But I should really tell you what I'm talking about before I keep gibbering shouldn't I? Well someone on the board for the Quidditch World Cup had this insane idea that they should send a scout to Hogwarts this year, since I guess Dumbledore's always going on about how amazing all the teams are. That's what I got from the speech. Well anyways, what he wanted to do was pick one of the four teams and...let them play as a team for the Cup. The **World** Cup. The **Quidditch World Cup!** Isn't that amazing! Well they voted and surprise, surprise it passed. It has some big long official name, and they've been calling it like VOMIT or something...I forget what it stands for..well I just wanted to give you a heads up. What happened to the team captains was, we all got here about two weeks ago and we met with the members of the Ministry who are involved, and McGonagall explained what was going on and everything. We're free to go home whenever we like and the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff captains both have. They said, they would hate to miss the train ride. I think I'll just stay because I've been getting ahead on my class work (N.E.W.Ts, argh...) And I've been scoping some new moves for us plus a new training regime. We can DO this! Oh, and I hope then envelope didn't confuse any of you and make you think you were getting expelled or something. I know I was frightened when I got a Hogwarts owl, two weeks before letters usually tlinecome, I just didn't feel like going out to get envelopes and McGonagall offered to let me use some of her Hogwarts ones. I figured it was better then going out to Hogsmeade and pointlessly spending a bunch of knuts on blank envelopes I don't really need, so yeah... I can't wait to meet you all. And just so you know, I haven't mastered my Duplication Charm yet and I had to write all of these individually. That''s why my writing...looks like a two year old's. Well that's it.

Hope to see you soon.

Barry

Ginny finished the letter, her suspicion lingering. Why had this upset Harry so much?

"He sounds nice." she said slowly

"He _sounds_ like Wood." he said in a bitingly sour tone.

"You liked Wood." Ginny pointed out quietly

"Yeah I did." Harry shrugged.

The two of them stared and random points in the room as an awkward silence rent the air.

"So...?" Ginny ventured daringly after a few moments

"So." Harry repeated

"So aren't you excited?"

Harry shrugged

"Why aren't you excited?"

Harry shrugged

"Has Ron gotten his letter yet?"

Harry shrugged

"Why did you come to me about this before you came to Ron?"

Harry shrugged

"Why aren't you happy about this?"

Harry shrugged. Ginny stared at him annoyed.

"Well this is getting absolutely no where." she snapped. She wasn't angry at Harry. She had simply just realized, that she wasn't all that happy about this either. And that if she had been first to receive her letter, she reasonlessly but most definitely would have first talked to Harry about it first. The tension ran thickly through the room as that familiar silence once more began to ring. "I think you should go." Ginny said sharply

"What?"

"Go. Talk to Ron about this. He's on the team too."

"Why don't you come?"

"I have things I have to do." she half-lied. Harry gave an indistinct shrug.

"Okay I guess." he stood up, looking down at Ginny, still pale as a ghost, his scar still shining vividly and more definitely than any other one of his features.

"Bye." Ginny said cooly when he didn't move. Taking the hint Harry grasped the doorknob quickly and made his way back to Ron's room leaving Ginny very much confused


	9. Persuasions And Old Jeans

**Persuasions and Old Jeans**

"Where are you going?" Ginny didn't flinch in the slightest. She simply thrashed her arm at a large pile of books. It toppled over into her large tattered suitcase that was lying open beneath her desk

"I'm _going_ to Diagon Alley." she said tonelessly

"Does mum know?"

"What d'you care?" Ron shuffled towards his sister's unmade bed. "I don't..." he said slowly

"Ronald don't be nervous." Ginny said briskly, rolling two mismatched socks into a ball. She could read the emotion in her brother's words, and she wasn't about to waste her time pointlessly inquiring to make sure her assumptions were correct.

"I'm _not_." he replied immediately. She turned to face him. Her large green eyes were sympathetic and open.

"Well good." He gave a weak smile as she reached out and awkwardly patted his shoulder. "And you...would you do me a favor?" she mumbled, walking back over to her suitcase

"What?"

"Could...would you just not tell mom about this quidditch thing? If...if you could?" Ginny could sense her brother's back stiffening behind her. He stalled, fingering the articles of clothing strewn all over the bed...

"Why?" he asked finally

""Just...just don't." She snapped her suitcase shut and stood it up with a healthy _thunk_. Several meaningless thoughts sailed through her tangled mind. And as many things she was unsure of, she knew that she didn't want her mother knowing.

"All right..." he agreed. Suddenly he eyed the suitcase questioningly. "Gin...why are you packing a suitcase to go to Diagon Alley?" Ginny couldn't help but roll her eyes to the ceiling. She was annoyed. Why wouldn't he just _leave?_

"I''m _not_ packing a suitcase to go to Diagon Alley you-"

"Then, why are you packing a suitcase?" he questioned.

Opening up a second bag, she began to throw random items, into it's largest compartment; pants, old quills, empty ink bottles, her smallest cauldron...grasping a large book she felt one of her nails bend backwards and snap off.

"Urgh..." she dropped the book and scowled down at her index finger now extracting a small portion of dark blood. Ron eyed the cut avidly... "Because..."" she said finally snapping into motion once more "I figured I would stay at Laura's for the rest of the summer..." He raised his eyebrows, in the neurotically superior way he did. Ginny loathed the look her gave her and continued to pack.

"Why?"

"Why the hell not?" she snapped as the tip of her finger throbbed with discomfort

"Well does-"

"No, mum doesn't know! All right?" She listened to the words fly recklessly from her mouth, not remembering decided on them...shaking off the unsettling feeling, she reached onto her bed and pulled at the first thing she saw. Her jeans came loose, from under Ron's foot which he didn't bother moving.

"Well _why_ are you-"

"I don't have to answer your moronic questions!"

Everybody''s watching you now...

Ginny whipped around facing him with her poisonous expression. She narrowed her eyes menacingly and felt that awkward agonizing feeling leak into the room..the one she had, had so little control over lately. She gave a terrible shiver and turned away, arching her shoulders forward.

"Could you please just leave now?"

"Fine." he said, hurt strangling his words. She breathed again as her brother exited the room. Clueless as to why she was so irritated by his presence, she allowed a tear of confusion to escape her eyes. The still and silent room seemed to be drowned in irreversible commotion. She slammed a frustrated hand ono her bed and pulled off the last pair of pants. Slowly she slid out of the skirt she was wearing and began to wiggle into the jeans. They had to fit... they had to. She had no idea why but she knew these pants had to fit her. A harassed feeling, prodding at her she pulled harder, now trying to do up the zipper. Her tiny fingers burned as she yanked the jeans up higher and finally held her breath as she fumbled with the button. But they wouldn't do up. They didn't fit. Miserably she yanked them off and forcefully chucked them at the wall facing her door before crawling underneath her covers and staring at the ceiling. They didn't fit. Nothing fit anymore...

"Sup drama bitch?"

"Excuse me?" Ginny replied to her brother's voice

"Ron tells me you're running away."

"Running away, my ass. What exactly would I be running from?"

"You tell me."

"Fuck you."

"Oh. Mum's tiny little baby girl can curse. Wait until she finds out."

"I have packing to do."

"Doesn't seem like it."

"How so?"

"You don't seem to be packing. You seem to be lying in your bed staring at the ceiling. Which looks exceptionally interesting if I do say so myself."

"Good point. You can leave now."

"What's with the PMS?"

She said nothing

"Where the fuck is Ginny?"

Ginny turned and stared at Fred. Before he was joking around, almost making her laugh but now he was just being a moron. He was annoying the hell out of her as was everyone else. She just wanted to leave, only for about two weeks and be back at Hogwarts. Harry did it every year. Why was this such a big deal for _her_?

"I''m right here." she said dully

"No, I mean where the fuck is _Ginny?_"

She blinked.

"You're gonna have to help me out here."

Fred sat down on the edge of her bed still wearing that idiotic grin he never bothered to wipe off his face. It had never really bothered Ginny but right now it was driving her insane.

"I mean the Ginny whose afraid of nothing and no one. Jesus Gin, you have one fight with mum and you wanna run away to Laura's? Mum screams at me like that as a greeting every morning."

"I know she does. Consider yourself lucky."

"Eh?" he asked confusedly

Ginny had no idea where that came from but she meant it.

"I just mean that's not why I'm leaving..."

"Then, why?"

"Do I need a fucking reason to want to see my friend?" she bellowed recklessly

Fred paused still smiling.

"Does Laura even know you're coming Gin?" he asked gently

Ginny hated his tone. It was the tone of someone who was trying to explain to her that Laura probably didn't want her there but was too scared and moronic to come out and say it.

"She won't mind." Ginny announced curtly. And she slammed her suitcase shut.

An hour later she had finished her sloppy packing and washed her hair, Ginny walked silently down the staircase.

"Hi mum." she said to her mother's back, after she could stall no more

"Oh Ginny!" her mother exclaimed, and turned around, "Good, I need some help with dinner, unless of course you want to practice a bit before you-...Ginny why have you packed your bags so early?" she asked in a confused, nervous voice

"The Porters asked me to come stay with them mum." she lied effortlessly, "I figured you wouldn't mind...you don't do you?"

"Oh...oh...no of course I don't." she answered. And with it she turned coldly back to face the oven. Ginny felt reasonless tears well up in her eyes. She was being a horrible daughter again.

"I'll come back at Christmas." she said, voice shaking

"Of course you will."" Mrs Weasley said shortly.

"Mum, please say good bye to me." Ginny begged, her voice almost breaking

"Oh..." Mrs. Weasley turned around and wrapped her arms around her daughter "I wish you wouldn't go Ginny. You know it's almost, never we have this much of the family in one place."

"I know mum. But it isn't a big deal, I''ll see you again. I just couldn't go if you were-"

"Go then." her mother almost spat, releasing her.

There was nothing Ginny could do.

"Fine." she stiffened, not letting herself cry again, over something this stupid. "Bye."

"Good-bye Ginerva." she said in a stone cold voice.

And with it, Ginny grasped a handful of thick power and stepped into the fireplace.


	10. Air Again

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Quick Author's Note: Okay well first of all thank you to my readers and my one and only reviewer. snort. How sad. And thank you to...blah blah shitty blah the usual shin dig. Oh and thank you to my one and only La who has not reviewed becaaaaause...she does not yet have a puh lace at this site.And plus she's in the story. People would want autographs and shit. Hahahaaa...man I am so not funny. Oh well yes. The reason I made this stupid author's note thing...because FanFiction has changed the Document Manager so it actually splits things into paragraphs I am no longer too lazy to have actual paragraphs instead of just spaces between every line. Yeah so I'm reformatting my story right now, and for anyone that cares it's gonna be fucked up for about a day, the chapters and stuff. Well. Deal. Yeah. And also. A note on the very end of this chapter. The lyrics? For those who don't already know, they're from a song by Boxcar Racer called There Is. I've gotta give them credit. Not just because it would be illegal in some weird unknown to me fucked up way not to, but because they rock. Download There Is. Hear them roar. Yeah. Okay then. On with le story.

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**Air Again**

The fire swirling brightly around her soon died away and she found her eyes in her head. Staring around the room she felt completely at home for the first time in a while.

"Laura?" she called out hopefully "J.J?"

Ginny took a few steps out of the fireplace and dusted herself off. The junky living room was virtually deserted, but her eyes darted satisfied to traces of her friends that were lying randomly around the room.

One of J.J's guitars was lying abandoned on it's side and several fruit roll up wrappers were thrown carelessly aside, near Laura's favorite green chair that was littered with toe nail clippings painted orange. Ginny let a snort escape her, as she looked away from the chair to find a baseball, lying suspiciously close to a lamp that was sitting, completely shattered on the ground.

That settled it. They were there somewhere.

"La!" she yelled even louder "J.J! Christ you two get your worthless asses in here!"

"Fuck _you_ whore..." she heard a voice snort in the distance as a screen door slammed shut.

"What did you just call me?" said another voice

"I _called_ you a whore you ugly man skank."

"Laura?"

"Eh?"

Ginny edged over to the corner about to round it, when a face appeared inches from her own, then gave a jag backwards as she heard an odd sound like a snort crossed with a terrified squeal issue from her best friend's mouth.

"You scared me!" Laura gasped.

Ginny giggled.

"I figured."

Laura's huge green eyes drifted upwards as she twiddled her thumbs only half listening.

"My brother is such a _whore_." she said suddenly

"What?" Ginny asked

"A whore Ginny. An ugly stupid ugly whore._ God_ what a whore."

"La?"

"Eh?"

"Erm...hi." said Ginny holding back laughter.

"Oh! Hi Gin!" she said as an enormous grin spread across her face and she engulfed Ginny in a hug

"Yeah, so why is J.J a whore?"

""What? Oh yeah...whore..."" she muttered absentmindedly. Then Laura dropped into the green chair, fruit roll up wrappers crinkling beneath her. "Green!" she exclaimed happily,"Hey want some pie?" Ginny wisely ignored her friend's odd comments, as she was far too used to them to find them at all irregular.

"Where _is_ J.J anyways?" Ginny asked.

"Right behind us." Laura answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world

"What?" Ginny asked. But before she had a chance to turn around her feet left the ground

"RIGHT BEHIND YOU!" a new voice yelled. J.J grabbed her by her stomach and threw Ginny over his shoulder as she erupted with laughter.

"What are you doing you ass?" said Laura tonelessly

"Checking to make sure it's really who I think it is!" he bellowed.

Ginny felt her hair in her mouth, as the hot blood rushed to her head and still she was paralyzed with reasonless laughter.

"Still freakishly skinny...and freckly...red hair." he commented grabbing a fistful of it and shoving it under his sister's nose. "Screams when I do _this._"

He squeezed Ginny's stomach and she let out a squeal followed by another stream of giggles.

"That's the best at hexing in our year you're tickling." Laura warned

"Hey you want some of this?" he yelled. But then he finally set Ginny on her feet and she fell into Laura's chair next to her to catch her breath. "Well good. We know it's Ginny."

"You had to do all that bullshit to know it's Ginny? That's why you're a stupid whore."

"Fuck you. And how'd you know I was behind you?"

"I'm your twin. I can read your sad little microscopic mind. Plus I'm smarter than you."

"In your fucking dreams."

"Hey you wanna go?" Laura screamed, reaching down and grabbing the baseball, her fingers narrowly missing several shards of broken glass

"Okay!" Ginny cried just as Laura raised the baseball into the air. She grasped Laura's wrist and forced it gently out of the air. "Pie then?"

"Oh!" Laura said happily dropping the baseball "I like pie!"

"Of course you do fat ass." J.J smiled

"Stop sweet talking me you horny _ass_. I'm not going to screw you, you're my _brother_. And you''re ugly."

"Well Caroline doesn't seem to think so."

"Who be Caroline?" Ginny cut in.

"Some really pretty, really smart girl who asked him out. But he said _n_o." She cut her emerald eyes at her brother

"Why?" Ginny asked him. But before he could open his mouth-

"Because he's an effing_ man whore_!"

"Explain how that makes me a man whore!"

"I don't need to explain things to ugly whores!"

"You know Laura one day you're gonna wake up, and you'll have a q-tip jammed into your brain!"

"Why the fuck would I have a q-tip stuck in my brain you-"

"Because I'm going to _put_ it there dumbass!"

"Would you two _stop_ for five minutes?"Ginny yelled trying to sound serious and angry. But laugher was choking her words. Seeing her friends was like breathing again.

"She's right." J.J agreed, surprising both girls. "So what's up with you Gin?"

"I got prefect." Ginny half groaned. "And wait..._Caroline!_ Wait! Do you mean Caroline like _the_ Caroline?"

"Caroline, like _the_ Caroline." he said tonelessly, and Ginny snorted. Caroline was J.J's old ex girlfriend.

Laura giggled, like a little girl for several seconds until her trademark snort escaped and she fell out of her chair

"You're a _prefect_?"

"Unfortunately."

"That's awesome, you can let us into the kitchens and shit!" Laura grinned

"Why would the prefects be allowed into the kitchens moron?" J.J questioned

"I don't _know_. Maybe it's their job to bathe the house elves or something!" she spat defensively

"I have to bathe _house elves_!" Ginny yelped

"Gin I'm sure you don't need to bathe house elves. Don't forget who your source of information is."

"You _ass_!" Laura exclaimed throwing a pillow at her brother, who then grabbed her by the ankles and turned her upside down

"I win!" he yelled

"_Unfair_! You're huge!"

"Never stopped you before!"

"Like hell, it didn't!" she shrieked elbowing him hard in the stomach. Laura fell to the ground with a loud bang, and settled herself back into her chair.

"So what's up with you guys?" Ginny asked

"J.J's working on new material." Laura answered, gesturing to a bunch of crumpled of parchment surrounding one of J.J's guitar.

"Can I hear it?" Ginny asked looking up at J.J who was now cracking his knuckles and shaking his head of dark hair so it fell into his face at just the right angle.

"None of it''s done yet." he shrugged.

Laura and J.J were half bloods. Neither had known about their powers until they received their letters on their eleventh birthday. Their mother was a pure blood witch, and their father was a muggle. The two of them had been under the impression that their parents were simply divorced for a long time. When in reality, they had never even been married. Laura and J.J had been nothing more than a drunken mistake. They were brought up by their muggle father, a musician. He'd given J.J his first guitar when he was nine, and Laura a set of drums. He was disappointed to find that Laura was bored by them and would much rather spend her time painting. J.J took over the possession, of the drums and his garage band developed in his third year of Hogwarts. When they had turned eleven, they moved in with their mother and neither had seen their dad since.

"Oh come on. I'll make the assumption that it sucks if you don't play it for me." Ginny said with a roll of her eyes.

J.J grinned.

"When it's done, I promise."

"Well what else is up with you buddy?" Laura asked in a giddy voice. "What have you been up to all summer?" Ginny took a deep breath.

"Well...I met a guy."

J.J's smile faltered.

"_Who_?" Laura asked giggling

"Well...I didn't _meet_ him. Well I mean obviously I _met_ him...my parents set me up."

Laura wrinkled her nose.

"Ew." she said shortly "Who is it?"

Ginny shifted in her seat

"Either of you guys know a Migell Prang?"

Silence fell in the room.

"What?" J.J said after a while "Who the fuck is that?"

He didn't sound amused

"Wait...wait..._Prang_?"

Neither did Laura.

"Oh god. I know that kid. That kid with the really ugly nose? And hair in his ears?"

Ginny felt her face grow red.

"You _like_ that kid?" J.J said sounding grossed out

"Yeah, he's okay." she said quickly

No one spoke for a few seconds. And then Laura let out a snort.

"Whatever melts your butter Gin." she grinned, "If you ask me you could do a hell of a lot better."

"Yeah." J.J agreed

"Well...thanks I guess." said Ginny letting out an uneasy laugh

J.J yawned.

"I've gotta shower." he announced. "I'll be back in like twenty minutes okay?"

"Sure, we'll start supper." Laura answered

"Where's your mom?" Ginny asked.

The two of them frowned

"We don't really know." J.J shrugged "She went away for a few weeks. She wouldn't say where..."

"Oh..." Ginny sought tensely "I'm sure she's fine."

"Yeah...c'mon Gin let's go...put some utensils out or something."

"What are we having for dinner?" J.J asked

Laura gave a light shrug

"Apple tonight?" J.J suggested

"Sounds good."

"And what kind of-"

"Orange." she said.

"Sounds good." he said grinning

"Huh?" Ginny asked.

"Okay Gin, you get the pie, I''ll get the soda."

Ginny threw her head back and laughed, almost tripping over her feet

"What?" Laura asked confused. It was J.J's turn to snort. Then he walked over to Ginny and wrapped his arms around her

"Good to have you back," he said happily, still laughing. She giggled.

"Good to know. And now if you'll excuse me, I've got to go set up our nutritious dinner."

He gave a hearty wink, just as Laura yelled something about what to have for dessert from the kitchen, and then he headed up the stairs. It was just Ginny left in the living room. She glanced around the room one more time before she headed out into the kitchen. And as wrong as she knew it was, she allowed her eye to briefly catch a page of J.J's scribbled lyrics. She smiled as she made her way to go help Laura. J.J was a mystery sometimes. And part of her wanted to know who he was writing about. Part of her was exploding with questions. Another part was simply happy to be back with them. But still she thought of the lyrics she had let her eyes wander over, and wondered what was going on in J.J's mind all the time, to have written something that well. Wondered who he was thinking of when he wrote it...:

In every single letter

Of every single word,

There will be a hidden message

Of a boy who loves a girl


	11. Tear Yourself Down

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Author's Note: A bit of a boring chapter. Right now I'm building the foundation for more interesting shit to happen so you'll need to bear with me. Long big sappy paragraphs and shit, not my favorite chapter but whatever. And I'm sorry it took me so long to get it up but as you know FanFiction had been being a bitch lately so I had to wait until it was under control and not PMSing. Also I might change the title of this fic just because I get bored easily so puh lease add it to your favorites. Yeah. Yeah. Well here it be. ****

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Tear Yourself Down

"Fuck." J.J muttered from across the room. He ripped a piece of parchment into pieces and dropped his guitar pick on the ground

"Jay, just play it." Laura moaned, "You're _really_ started to piss me off."

He just shook his head.

"It isn't done."

"I _figured,_ you dumbass. I don't care. Play it."

"No." he repeated stubbornly

"At least play it for Gin." Laura persuaded, as Ginny entered the room "I mean, I could tell you if it _sounds_ good, but Gin actually knows something about music. She actually plays gui-."

Ginny gave a snort and collapsed on the ground next to Laura.

"Hardly."

"Well you don''t _suck_"

"Thanks La."

"You know what I mean!..._fuck_ Jay just _play_ it!"

"_No_." he said hotly, fingering different chords.

"What are you writing about anyways J.J?" asked Ginny gently

He looked up and let his dark eyes drift around the room, as though thinking.

"Maybe...maybe I should go in a different direction..." he muttered more to himself than anyone else, as his hand immediately jumped to a quill lying on the floor. Ginny listened to the scratch of the parchment against the quill as J.J's eyes flew up and down the page. It was difficult for her not to burst with curiosity. J.J had never been this frustrated over a song before, and she desperately wanted to hear it, but she didn't want to bug him especially when he seemed so pissed off already.

"Yeah fine, you do that." Laura wrapped, breaking the silence. She rolled her eyes and gave a reasonless snort. "So are we going to Diagon Alley today, or what?"

"Oh yeah, that''s right." noticed Ginny, glancing at her watch. "Well sure, I guess. I don't really think I need much though."

J.J looked up at her.

"Don't you need a bunch of honour's shit or something?"

"Eh?"

"Didn't you say your mom was going on about all the new shit you'll need for those smart kids classes?"

"Oh, well yeah but I mean really I do''t need that much it just seemed like a lot." answered Ginny. She was telling the half truth. She didn't want to spend too much of her parents money. As much as it embarrassed her, her family needed every penny they could get their hands on. They were poor. And she was not the world's greatest daughter. They shouldn't need to be wasting their money on her.

What''s that now? Lost who you are? Can't really see straight? Well you're wrong, and you're worth more than that shit, but of course, you're far too blind to see it

"Really?" Laura asked, "Are you sure?"

Ginny could feel herself growing red, wishing they would look away. Their eyes were burning into her and it hurt. Why did they care about her so much? It made no sense.

"Yeah, so are we going or what?" she answered quickly

Laura shrugged

"Sure."

She stood up, and crammed the last of a chocolate pop tart she'd been munching on into her mouth. Dusting herself off she waltzed into the kitchen, as J.J stared avidly at his guitar as if trying to read its mind, and find the potential of the secret song that was putting him through so much hell.

Ginny glanced at Laura who was now jingling some bronze coins around in her hands, half her attention on counting them. She stretched her arms up in the air briefly revealing her gorgeous tan stomach. Had Laura lost weight? No. Ginny realized she hadn't. But she was so thin, and beautiful. That had always been Ginny. It had always come easy. Laura had always been small too, but Ginny was the smallest. The thinnest. Freakishly so. Now not so much. And it began to creep up on her, that as awful as it was she was extremely bothered by this. And it wasn't just Laura, she knew. Maybe everyone had always been just as pretty as her, just as slim, and she Ginny had simply never noticed because she was so self- involved, stuck up, immediately convinced that she and only she was-

"We'll go in a bit, I guess." J.J grunted. "No point in leaving right away."

"Yeah." Ginny agreed without hearing him.

Well it wasn't going to be like that anymore. Everyone was better than her? Yes. Everyone was prettier than her? Yes. Horrible thoughts she had never known before were flowing into her mind. But she refused to let it happen. She needed to catch up with that girl everyone thought she was. She would be the thinnest and prettiest and smartest once again. She had to be. She refused to disappoint her family, her friends who knew her as this girl she supposed she had once been. Why was she losing so much control? How had she gained this weight, lost all of her charm and wits? She had, had them before hadn't she?

But nothing about her had changed except her view of herself.

Worn and worked it was becoming skewed and blankly wrong as she stupidly brought new untrue thoughts into her head.

It was her fault, completely her fault, she realized tears welling up in her gorgeous eyes. And soon the world would realize that she had become, stupid and ugly and annoying and _fat_. Well she wouldn't let them. She wouldn't disappoint her friends and family. She wouldn't disappoint herself. She had always been this girl. This pretty, thin, charming, funny, sweet, smart perfect girl. If she wasn't that girl anymore it was her fault. If she wasn't that girl...then who was she?

What''s that now? Lost who you are? Can''t really see straight? Well you''re wrong, and you''re worth more than that shit, but of course, you''re far too blind to see it

Well, no. She could be that girl. She would be that girl. It wouldn't be fair to Laura and J.J if she couldn't be. They would leave her, she knew they would. And she would miss them terribly. If only she could stop them. And then it hit her. Everyone was going to leave her. Everyone was going to hate her. Everything was caving in. She had changed. For the worse.

And she _had_ changed for the worse. But not the way she thought. She'd changed so much she was, staring, horrified at flaws that weren't even there. It was getting to her, the weight of her life and it never occurred to her that maybe she wasn't a terrible person if she wasn't smart, or thin or pretty or sweet or perfect.

But she was all these things.

She just hated herself too much to see it.

Ginny took a deep breath to calm herself down. All right, perhaps the brief blissful joy of being back with her friends was over. She had things to think about again. Things to work on, things to do...things to improve.

"Hey!" Laura exclaimed suddenly. No one looked up. She stomped her foot trying to grab their attention. "_Hey_!" she repeated.

Ginny jerked out of her horrific trance

"Eh?"

"Want one?" Laura asked, now holding up a new package of pop tarts

"I'm good." she replied automatically.

J.J glanced upwards at her, eyes twisted strangely, then quickly scribbled something onto his parchment.

"What the hell is with you two?" Laura demanded.

Oh no. It was happening already. Laura was realizing she was no fun anymore.

"J.J!" Laura screamed stomping her foot again.

She hated being ignored. Annoyed, her brother snapped his head up and glared at her.

"Seriously, would it kill you to fuck off for five minutes Laura?" he growled

"That was cold."

"Well _good_."

"J.J!-" Ginny began

"Forget it!" he exclaimed, tossing his quill aside "Are we going?"

Laura scowled cooly

"Whatever I don't care."

"Oh go chew your fucking ear off painter girl-"

"_Hey_!"

"J.J _what_-" Ginny attempted again

"Screw it, I''m going to the basement." Laura yelled

"We aren't allowed in the basement."

She jumped as though burned from the knob as turned stone cold eyes to her brother.

"You _promised_." she told him disgusted

"I promised what?" he asked confused

There was a brief pause before Laura shook her head furiously as though giving up and started down into the basement.

"Forget it, I don't give a shit." she said simply slamming the door behind her.

It was silent again.

"Jay that was so _not_ rock and roll." Ginny ventured quietly

He took a long frustrated breath but said nothing.

"If this stupid song is pissing you off so much, why don't you just forget it? It doesn't need to be _perfect_."

Wrong thing to say and Ginny knew it.

"Yes it does."

Well, she'd seen that coming.

"Why don't you just give up for a while? Let the words come to you. Would you at least play it for me Jay?" Ginny let her voice fade away near the end of the comment.

"No...I...I''ve just gotta keep working on it...but...later I guess...I mean I guess we can go now."

"Okay..." she said slowly "After you apologize to Laura."

"She doesn't care-"

"I care." said Ginny sharply.

He ran a hand through his dark hair

"Fine."

She raised her eyebrows at him.

"Hey...you okay?"

And then he smiled

"Yeah."

Slowly, they stood up and began to make their way towards the basement calmly, until they heard a loud scream issue from somewhere beneath them and they stopped in their tracks locking eyes before immediately bolting forwards and yanking open the old wooden door. Ginny took the steps four at a time, reaching the bottom and spinning all around searching for the disturbance.

"_La!_" J.J exclaimed exasperated when he met with Ginny.

Another shriek issued and Ginny turned her eyes to wear J.J was staring.

"Fuck!" Laura screamed turning around to see them. She had been sitting at a desk with an odd muggle invention that reminded Ginny a bit of the TV her father had explained to her.

"_What_ is up?" J.J demanded making towards his sister and resting his hands on her shoulders.

"I was so fucking scared." replied Laura blankly

"What is that thing?" Ginny asked

"It's a computer." J.J answered her. "We have a bunch of muggle shit down here...because...well I dunno, I guess we just got used to having it when we lived with our dad-"

"Oh my GOD Jay it was so scary!" Laura repeated. She had obviously forgotten their spat rather quickly. Ginny peered blankly at Laura.

"You. Scared. Of what?" she asked disbelievingly

"Of the fucking _demon child_ from _hell!_" she bellowed defensively gesturing to the screen.

J.J gave a loud bark of a laugh.

"Laura it's a _movie_!" he howled after realizing what she was talking about

"_What's_ a movie?" Ginny asked

"I was watching this movie trailer...about this...this..this _gir_l...and she's all like "Charlie did it!" and then she kills everyone!"

"Oh please, they wouldn't show if she killed everyone, it's supposed to be suspenseful!" J.J argued

"Fuck _you_! She kills _everyone_!"

"All right Laura. She kills everyone. D'you guys wanna go now then?"J.J said shaking his head

"Yeah okay." Ginny agreed "Hey...why aren't you guys allowed down here?"

Laura shrugged somewhat awkwardly

"I dunno...she's never really told us...we just...aren't." she said stiffly.

Ginny caught J.J's eye as they made their way up the stairs. She didn't know why. But it felt good to lock eyes with him. He had grown, she noticed. He was nearly a head taller than both girls and even his eyes looked slightly different. There was fire inside them. Determination. He had grown in wisdom, she could see. And somehow, something about his dark eyes seemed to be sending her the message that everything was going to be alright.

But then he blinked.

And she knew she'd imagined it all.


	12. Of A Simpler Time

**

* * *

Author's Note: Bonjour. Yes. Ew I can't believe I just said that I hate French. Anywaaaays, this chapter is a flashback. Generally I would put flashback chapters in italics but this chapter has so many god damn italics, and some of them are kind of important, and I'm far too lazy to take them OFF italics and put the rest IN italics. So yes. This chapter is a flashback. Can't say there was no way for you to know now. Unless you don't read the Author's Notes which you SHOULD because I enjoy writing them and they contain IMPORTANT information such as what I ate for breakfast this morning. A peanut butter chocolate chunk cookie and some Diet Coke. It's peanut butter and jelly tiiiiime. Anyways yes. Not much else of any importance. Except, the two songs used in this chapter, I need to give credit to the artists once again because blah blah blah laws and shit that I don't actually care about...and because they kick ass. If I ever use a song from a shitty artist which I will never do, I will not give credit to the artist. -SNORT-. Anywaaaays the first song of magicalness be Gifts and Curses by the ever wonderful Yellowcard. And the word Ginny replaces the word Mary. Very thorough aren't I? Aaaand the second song that Ginny and Laura don't really sing right because they're fucked up and drunk is Disappear by Hoobstank. And yes I did just give away part of the plot. Oh well when you mention the word drunk it's just encouragement to read the chapter. People love it. Haaaw. As if. Anyways yeah.. Go to it. Hope you enjoy the splendiforous FLASHBACK chapter. There I reminded you again you can't forget. And I mean even if you didn't read the Author's Note or forgot what it said thirty seconds after reading it, it still isn't a very hard thing to figure out. And even if the chapter totally confuses you it's still funny and wonderful as it involved Laura and J.J and Ginny and naked pie and a big ugly beast. Well now that I've babbled a fair fucking bit, read the chapter. Yus.**

* * *

**Of A Simpler Time**

The sky shone brightly with dark cold colours, but the air still blew refreshingly warm onto her face. Ginny laughed loudly for no reason. She never needed a reason.

"I can feel the branches through the blanket on my ass!" Laura cried throwing her head back all the while releasing loud giggled

"What ass?" Ginny snorted. "Do I _have_ a ass anymore?it's so numb!"

"Let me check!" J.J joked grabbing Ginny stomach as she howled loudly

"Peeerv!" Laura droned rolling on top of her brother and pulling his hair. Ginny gave a muffled cry from beneath all their body weight, laugher still detectable. J.J poked his sister hard in the side. She shrieked and toppled off the top of the pile next to Ginny who let out a loud snort. Laura responded to this by reaching out and grabbing her friend's nose. She flailed insanely, thrashing her legs, which forced J.J on top of Laura who stuck her knee up catching his stomach. He gave a loud groan and reached out with his hands. Their screams of laugher could have been heard for miles around as for several minutes the mayhem continued.

A mass of empty vodka bottles lay soaking in the summer dew of the grass, their brooms some feet away closer to the other end of the Quidditch pitch where the three of them were lying on a thin blanket as a million stars slowly found their places in the dark evening sky. J.J opened another bottle of stolen liquor.

"To the end of exams!" he declared rasing the large bottle into the air. Noticing he had nothing to clink the bottle against Laura slammed her fist against it helpfully. A splash of cold fizzy vodka hit Ginny in the face as she gave another blissful laugh and licked the area around her dark lips, then collapsed further onto the blanket taking the bottle J.J passed her and not hesitating to take a long swig. It felt cold against her tiny fingers and as she clutched it tight, trails of the substance still escaped in trickles and poured down her face, finding her way to her ears. She loved the way it felt.

"I can't wait till next year." she piped up passing the bottle to Laura. she was lying on her stomach his her head on her arm, gazing in wonderment up at the castle alight with the glow of a million fairies.

"Nothing'll be different right?" Laura asked letting herself fall down next to Ginny, their hair entwining together into one great mass. "I mean a lot of stuff is changed. It'll be _fifth year_. And Ginny's in all those classes for perfect kids-"

J.J interrupted with the sound of the now empty bottle being tossed carelessly aside before he laughed.

"Perfect? Far from it. Will you look at her? Lying out on the Quidditch pitch after curfew with stolen vodka and stolen––pie, that you just _had_ to have for some reason. And _drunk_ might I add."

"_Ladies_ don''t get drunk." Laura said scoldingly

"Like I said. She's drunk." Ginny rolled over, drooling in the slightest and smacked J.J across the head. He laughed again and she smiled.

"Well we don't." Laura pressed, grinning herself "We don't get drunk. We just...reach our peak.."

"That sounds rather sexual." her brother noticed raising his eyebrows as Ginny rolled back over and released a fresh snort. "And plus that. We could be having _sex _out here."

Ginny just stared at him.

"No we couldn't."

Laura cackled.

"_Burn_."

"Well we could be."

"No we couldn't." she repeated.

"Well _they _don't know that!" he exclaimed gesturing tipsily to the castle

"They don't know we're _gone_." Laura pointed out

"Well they _could_. And if they _did._ They could think we were out...canoodling. And they would know she was far from perfect."

Ginny just laughed. Being perfect didn't concern her. She never _tried _to be perfect. She did what everyone else did. Apparently she was better at most of it. Oh well. She took a swig draining the drops from one of the bottles. She didn't care. They could call her perfect. Lying there she had to agree more with J.J. She was far from it. But so what?

"Look there's Snape checking to see if anyone's out here and sealing up the castle"" Laura snorted. "Never thinks to check here the old git does he?"

Ginny was about to answer, at least she figured she was when a loud slamming snapped her eyes towards J.J and she realized he was pulling out his guitar. She blinked. He really _was_ quite good looking.

"Where's your amp?" she asked in a drunken voice

He stared

"It's an acoustic Gin."

She stared blankly back clearly too wasted to process this.

"Where's your amp?"

"Erm...it's...it's...it's inside Gin." he said grinning and beginning to let his hands bend effortlessly strumming a familiar song.

"_Ginny belongs to the words of a song_" he sang jokingly. Even in her state she knew the song well and snorted as she pulled Laura over with her to listen better.

"_I try to be strong for her. Try not to be wrong for her."_

There was only him. Only him and his guitar. The night sky slowly faded away as Ginny forgot her hand on Laura''s back. His eyes were really quite pretty. She wasn't even listening...she didn't need to pay attention to the music. The music paid attention to her. She heard it without trying.

"_Ginny's alive in the bright New York sky"_

She inched just a little bit closer...

"_The city lights shine for her."_

His fingers were one giant blur, and he never so much as glanced at them.

"_Above them I cry for her."_

She loved the way he rolled the word "above" around a million times on his wet lips...

"_Everything's small on the ground below...down below..."_

He was looking at her too, she realized now. His gorgeous eyes were on her. She couldn't look away. She felt lost in his eyes. Only she was''t lost. She could never be lost in him. He knew him far too well. Ginny beamed. She loved that.

"_What if I fall..."_

He seemed to be singing slower...

"_Well where would I go?"_

She moved even closer.

"_Would she kno-ow?..."_

"Fuck you''re hot." Ginny blurted out "You're _sexy_."

J.J stopped playing and stared at her.

"You''re _drunk_."

"No!" she protesting slamming her hand down on the air. Only the air wasn't solid and she toppled over forward grunting with laughter

"DO YOU KNOOOOOOOW THAT EVVVV''RY TIME YOU'RE NEEEEAR!" Laura screeched suddenly throwing her arms into the air with drama, "EEEEVERYONE ELSE JUST SEEMS SOOOO-" She stopped abruptly "Whoooa I like_ totally_ forget the rest of the words! Hmmm...oh wait! DO YOU KNOOOOOOOOOOW- wait _fuck_ did I already sing that part?"

"Hey I know that song!" Ginny yelled "I _know_ that song!"

"DO YOU KNOOOOOOOOOW! DO YOU KNOOOOOW! Uhhhh...DISAPEAAAAR! JUST STAY HERE WE'LL DISAPEAR MAKE THEM NEAR-MAKE THEM-DO YOU KNOOOOOOOOW!"

"That could not be more wrong." J.J said plainly.

Ginny stood up and started to dance, flailing her hips insanely, wagging her head so her long hair fell into her face, blocking her view.

"Hey shut up, it was good!" she scolded him. She tried to take a step forward but fell forward into J.J.

"Hey there." he said.

"Whoooa!" she screamed scrambling backwards, "Your head is like growing_ things_!"

She pointed to J.J's head, her eyes popping out of her own head as she screamed. Laura stopped singing and stared too.

"Hey _yeah_!" she agreed toppling over to her brother and grabbing one of his ears, "They look like pie!" she squealed excitedly "What the fuck_ are_ they?"

"They're ears Laura and if you try to eat them I swear you won't live to see our next birthday."

"Oh my _GOD_!" Ginny exclaimed interrupting him. "That is the COOLEST WORD."

"What?" he asked blankly "Birthday?"

"_Ears_!" she said it again "Eeeeeearrrrs. _Eeeeeeaaaaaarsssss_."

"You have them too." he pointed out chuckling.

Ginny felt the sides of her head.

"Hey yeah!" she noticed "Wow that is _fucked up!"_

Laura whipped her head around snapping her teeth, trying to catch one of her ears in her mouth

"Fuck, it's so hard!" she yelled as she toppled over backwards

"How hammered are you two?" J.J asked through laughter.

"Oh shut up and have some more vodka!" Laura exclaimed spiritedly. She grabbed her brother's shoulder for support as she skipped along the pitch. J.J shrugged, reaching for another bottle and within seconds he had downed the entire thing.

"DO YOU KNOOOOOOOOOW THAT EVERY TIME YOU'RE EEEEARSS- I mean-EVERY TIME YOU'RE EEEEARSS-I mean- wait, oh my _GOD_ guys I figured out something _really cool!"_ Laura guffawed now rolling around on the grass _"Near_ rhymes with _ear_! I mean with ears! But it's _near_...hmm..._nears?_...EAR. _Fuck_ it worked a minute ago!"

"Where'd that girl go?" J.J asked seeming to finally to be a little wasted himself

"Le Gin?"

"Yeah that."

"Dunno!" cried Laura starting to prance

"I'm heeeeeeeeeere!" Ginny yelled from the opposite end of the pitch. "Let's get NAKED!"

"Let's get PIE!" Laura screamed in response

"NAKED PIE!" Ginny cried back sounding demonic and insane.

Laura liked this idea.

"YEEEEAAAAHHHHHHH!" she shrieked starting to run forwards dragging her brother with her, "COME ON BUDDY, WE'RE GETTING NAKED PIE!"

But J.J still had some sense in him.

"Guys maybe we shouldn't be going that close to the Forbidden-"

"NAKED PIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE!" his sister screamed one more time before she booted from the pitch pulling off her t shirt as she ran so she was only in her black strapless bra and hip hugging jeans.

"La! Oh _fuck_ I don't wanna see that!" he said trying to shield his eyes and summon back his sister at the same time.

"Oh my god I get it! She's the pie! The naked pie! Because she's getting _naked_ and-_-Laura wait, I get it!"_ Ginny screamed running after her and mimicking Laura's previous actions "I WANNA BE PIE TOO!" she pulled off her own top and revealed a bra identical to Laura's. The result of two girls who never go shopping without each other

"PIE?" Laura bellowed only feet from the forest "I LIKE PIE!"

"COME ON SEXY MAN!" Ginny bellowed turning to face J.J "You _know_ you wanna be pie!"

Ginny was standing roughly ten feet from J.J in only her bra. His mouth opened the smallest bit as all of his energy was poured towards not letting his eyes drift towards her freckly chest that seemed to be revealed more every moment as the bra was strapless and Ginny was too small to have much to hold it up

"_Fuck."_ he muttered staring up at the sky "_SERIOUSLY_ guys come back here...and...put your... tops on."

Ginny gave a drunken grin and thought nothing of his words. But just then-

""AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" they heard a scream issue in Laura's voice from some ways away by the forest. All fell silent. Ginny went to run towards her

"PIE! NAKED-I'M COOOOOOOOOMING!", but she tripped tipsily to the ground as she spun around. J.J started forward and pulled Ginny up off the ground

"Laaaaaa?" he slurred, not bashed enough to not know something was wrong.

From the approaching distance they heard her shrill cry again. They were both running. And then they saw it.

"FUCK!" Ginny bellowed at the giant hairy creature behind Laura. "IT'S BIG!"

She took a step forward but J.J caught her by the stomach and pushed her behind him

"GINNY RUN! GET AWAY!" he yelled sharply. But it was far too late now. Whatever it was, was too close. For the first time the air felt cold. It had huge black eyes and long dark hair surrounding its horns and mouth, dripping saliva

"WHAT IS IT?" she yelled

"LAURA!" he cried as it approached her

"FUCK!" Laura yelled trying to dodge it but, she tripped and fell flat on her face. She didn't get up.

"LAURA!" Ginny screamed frantically. Reality was beginning to creep back up on her.

"GINNY RUN!" J.J repeated "GET AWAY!"

"NO I WON'T" she yelled back "I WON'T, I WON'T LEAVE HER HERE! I WON'T LEAVE _YOU!"_ tears were beginning to spill down her cheeks, "WHAT IS IT?"

"I DON'T KNOW!" he sounded frustrated "JUST GET OUT!"

But that was not even an option in Ginny's mind. Recklessly she sped forward, moving towards her friend until the beast reared on its enormous hind legs. Ginny took hurried steps backwards and found herself, falling onto the hard ground too. Suddenly she was very aware she was only in her bra.

"GINNY!" he bellowed voice strangled with fear

"Holy-" Laura was stirring

"LA STAY THERE. DON'T FUCKING MOVE! DON'T LET IT KNOW THAT YOU'RE-"

"GINNY MOVE!" she screamed as though she hadn't even heard her brother "_MOVE!"_

Immediately Ginny turned to face the beast and she could see what Laura meant. She was going to die tonight. It reared once more and began towards her. She scrambled desperately backwards

"HEY!" Laura screamed her face red with tears. But her voice was full of determination "HEY YOU!"

"LA DON'T!" Ginny''s voice was breaking. It was harder to get words out. "DO-ON'T!"

"HEEEEEY!" she hollared again. It stopped and turned towards her. "THAT'S RIGHT!" Laura yelled getting to her feet and spreading her arms apart. "I'M RIGHT HERE."

"LAURA NO!" Ginny sobbed uncontrollably "_NO!"_

It was feet from her now

"FUCK NO!" J.J yelled running full speed. But he was just too far away. Laura rounded and began to run, curving around the monster. It stopped in its tracks confused. But then it turned its enormous head swiftly after her and its horn caught her in the back of the leg. Ginny heard her strangled moan and let out a loud reasonless scream. Ginny was still on the ground. J.J came up behind her, she could hear his quickened breath. He pulled her up to her feet and moved in front of her but-

"LAURA!" she yelled

"I'M HERE!" she responded through sobs. The beast had lost interest. It turned to J.J and Ginny. His grip was now tight on her arms, she could barely move. She tried to start towards it, overcome with anger but his already numb hands tightened

"_Ginny no."_ he whispered. But she broke free.

"LAURA GET AWAY FROM IT! I'LL DIS-"

"GIN FUCKING D-"

"HEY!" she screamed as Laura had "_HEY!"_

He ran up behind her and grabbed her around the middle once more

"Ginny-"

"Jay _no_!"

"Go back-"

"_No_-"

"Go back up to the castle and tell them-"

"_NO!"_ she screamed too loudly not to be heard.

It narrowed its dark eyes once more, as Ginny twisted herself free.

"Laura run!"

"I can't!" she heard Laura sob "_I can't!"_

There was no room to run this time. Before Ginny had even attempted escaping it was happening in a flash of sharp quick moving horns and J.J's yells from somewhere behind her. The beast caught its long dark horns on her soft stomach. They cut through the flesh as pain burst sharply into her body and she let out a loud wail.

The only upside was it was satisfied. With one last snort the beast turned on its heal and galloped back into the Forbidden Forest.

The first thing Ginny heard was J.J's strangled yell of frustration.

"ARGH!" he cried as he ran frantically towards the girls who were both lying on the ground covered in dirt and blood in their matching black strapless bras about ten feet away from each other. "Oh, _fuck_." he exclaimed falling to his knees in between them. First he crawled to his poor sister, who was now sitting up breathing hard with her face in her hands, "Laura." he said concernedly "Are you okay?"

"I'm-fine." she gasped, which was obviously a lie.

"Calm down." he said soothingly, "It's gone now okay?"

She nodded several times, both hands on her vibrating leg

"Let me see." he said staring at her leg

She shook her head

"It's f-fine. Go. Go see Ginny. Wh-what did it do t-to-"

"Shhh..." he laid a hand down on her leg and felt her breath sharpen. He looked up. "Can you walk at all?"

For the first time Laura let out her trademark snort

"Now _th-that_ was a stupid question you dumbass." she said gesturing to her mangled leg. He laughed too but then a soft moan from Ginny brought them back to Earth.

"Here." J.J muttered pulling her up. She was shaking violently. He wrapped her limp arm around his shoulder and helped her walk the few feet over to Ginny where J.J collapsed to his knees once more and Laura carefully sat down.

Ginnys eyes were closed tight and distinct shivers were issuing from her pale mouth.

"Ginny." J.J said urgently "Gin..."

She slowly opened her eyes and registered both of them sitting there. Her mouth opened and she moved her lips, but no words issued. They were patient.

"Cold." she said finally resuming shivering.

"You must be going into shock or something." he said slowly. "Just breathe okay?"

J.J looked down at the blood issuing from her pale stomach and bit his lip. Laura gave a loud hiccough.

"Our brooms." she said rubbing her face "They're all over-"

"Forget about it." he said sharply.

"They'll know we were-"

"They won't" he said firmly.

Without another word J.J tore off his black sweater and his t shirt. He reached out and slowly tied the t shirt around Laura''s bloody leg, pausing as she winced. Then he wrapped the sweater around Ginny and picked her up easily in his arms. Her eyes were shut tight again.

"How do you know about all this shit?" Laura said suddenly and loudly, "I mean fuck I've lived with you my whole life, when the fuck did you learn to keep a cool head in a crisis?"

"I never really learned anything particular, I just eventually learned to do the exact opposite of whatever you did." he said with a roll of his eyes "Grab my shoulder you midget freak."

She snorted and did as told.

"You're so hot." she commented as they started back to the pitch, J.J with Ginny in his arms. He stared at her blankly.

"Not like _THAT!"_ she screeched "I mean you_ POSSESS BODY WARMTH!_ Fuck...that bull shit is wrooong."

He stared again

"Well, I haven't been half naked for the past twenty minutes."

Laura raised her eyebrows and laughed

They arrived back at the pitch and cleared the empty vodka bottles away from the blanket. Snape had sealed the castle so going back up was not an option until morning. J.J gently lifted Ginny out of his arms and set her on the blanket where she stirred, opening her eyes and sat straight up.

"Whoooa..." she muttered slapping a hand to her head and staggering backwards when it hit with such force. "My _head_."

Laura sat down slowly and gave a weak smile

"Congratulations, the makings of your very first hangover."

Ginny snorted

"First? Not likely."

Laura grinned at her

"I know it just sounded like the right thing to say."

They both stared blankly at each other for a moment and then snorted once more.

"How do you get a hangover twenty minutes after you're drunk?" J.J cut in.

Both girls stopped laughing and stared up at him blankly

"Well _excuse _me _Professor_." Laura scoffed

"I just mean-"

"Oh fuck you, you're never even able to get drunk because you're so huge! You're like Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk!"

He stared

"What's that now?"

"You know! And he's like a_ giant_ who lives at the top of the beanstalk!"

"Jack wasn't the giant La. Jack was the kid who climbed the beanstalk."

Laura looked confused.

"You mean he climbed the giant?"

"_No_, Laura the beanstalk wasn't the giant either. The beanstalk was the beanstalk."

She stared off into space for a moment attempting to register this. Then-

"Oh fuck you. You're huge. That's my point."

Ginny gave a cough a lied back down.

"It really is cold." she said weakly

"It's not cold." said Laura.

J.J stared avidly at the chunk missing from Ginny's middle. Gently, he applied pressure, with the black sweater and watched as the dark blood seeped through and leaked onto his hands. Ginny gave a dry sob.

"Look maybe we should all just go to sleep. No teams have practice tomorrow, no one's gonna catch us, there aren't any classes...we need sleep." J.J yawned

He waved his wand and cleared the empty vodka bottles before helping Laura lie down underneath the enormous blanket next to Ginny. He crawled under, on the other side of her. She was still shivering. He gathered his nerve and slowly wrapped his arms around her tiny, fragile body, to keep her warm. He could feel her breath. And he felt right for one of the first times in his life. He felt perfect.

"Jay..." Ginny said sleepily.

"Mmm?" he said

"It _won't_ change will it? Next year?"

"No." he said without hesitation

"What if it does? What if it''s all different and weird?"

"It won't be." he answered simply "I won't let it be."

"Promise?" she asked drifting to sleep

"I promise if you do."

"I promise..." she muttered in a voice barely above a whisper.

They all drifted in out and out of uneasy sleeps throughout the night. J.J could often hear his sister singing in her beautiful voice. He was sure she wasn't asleep. A few times she even got up off the ground, and stood on one foot staring up at the night sky as she sang. He could hear tears in her voice. But he didn't get up. She didn't need to know he was listening...

He opened his eyes. The sun wasn't out yet...he heard crickets still chirping incessantly. He shifted his arm a little to check his watch...it read 3:48AM. J.J glanced up at the sky and then down at Ginny who was sleeping peacefully. He could still feel her warm breath...he looked to her stomach where his sweater was still wrapped around the deep wound, and one of his hands was placed. But she wasn't shivering anymore...maybe he shouldn't be-...slowly J.J began to lift his hands away from her body. A small grunt issued from her mouth as he did so.

"Reflex..." he muttered to himself.

But it wasn't. Maybe she wasn't asleep after all. Ginny reached out with her minuscule hand and touched his wrist

"Don't..." she murmured gently bringing it back around her body "Don't stop Jay...I don't want you to...I _love _you..."

J.J wasn't even aware if she knew what she was saying. He didn't respond. He simply put his hands back where they were and smiled breathing in the warm night air...

Ginny blinked her eyes open and rubbed the sleep out of them. Her stomach was throbbing. Her head was pounding. She glanced around her. Laura was still fast asleep on her left snoring quietly.

J.J was gone. She glanced up. He was sitting a few feet away from the blanket with his back to her and a guitar in his hands, strumming quietly. She glanced at her watch. 7:32AM.

"Morning Jay..." she said weakly "Whatcha doing?"

He turned around and glanced at her then at his guitar.

"I dunno...I just...felt like I needed a guitar in my hands." he replied with a sheepish grin, "Sorry if I woke you up."

She shook her head and yawned, balancing on her elbows

"Don't be."

"How d'you feel?" he asked placing his acoustic on the ground and looking at her, eyes full of concern.

"Can't complain." she shrugged, sitting up. "But...what _happened_ last night?"

His expression vanished

"You don't _remember_? Not any of it?"

She shook her head and he snorted.

"And that kind of frightens me as I'm in my bra and you're not wearing a shirt."

"Nothing happened." he said through laughter

"Holy _fuck_." Laura was stirring. "Oh god. We didn't screw did we? If I screwed my brother I'll kill myself. Wait...is this heaven? Fuck we died didn't we? I'm gonna kill myself if we're dead. Wait how did..." she glanced down at her leg "What the _fuck_? Jay did you try to eat me or something?"

"Hey wait..." Ginny looked down at her throbbing stomach covered in J.J's sweater "_What_ the fuck happened here?"

They were both staring him. He thought of last night...a million emotions coming over him.

"_Don't...don't stop Jay...I don't want you to...I love you..."_

He took a deep shaky breath

"I dunno...I dunno...I mean...nothing happened really..." he muttered

"How did-" Laura began gesturing to her leg

"I dunno." he cut in. "Madam Pomfrey'll fix it up in a heartbeat...I guess...I guess nothing that happened last night really matters."

Ginny glanced at him suspiciously

"What's up Jay?"

She could always see right through him...

"Let's just head back up to the castle." he smiled

"Errrmmmm buddy." Laura piped up gesturing to her bare stomach and dark bra.

"Fuck." he muttered looking away. Throughout the havoc of the previous night he'd forgotten to avoid looking at his sister. "Your shirts are over by the other end of the pitch I'll get them."

Laura shrugged

"Kay!"

He returned and tossed both of them their t shirts. Ginny winced when she slid her's on, then rolled it up past her cut. She stared at it for a second then predictably let out a snort.

"It's so huge." she giggled pointing at her stomach.

"Mine too!" laughed Laura hopping around on her good leg "Biiiiiiiig. Big and...naked." She stopped hopping and blinked a few times. There was silence. "Hey wait. I think I remember something...naked..._naked_."

"Naked?" Ginny asked blankly

Laura said nothing. Then-

"_Pie_." she turned her head. "Pie. I remember something about pie."

Ginny just snorted

"Sorry La that doesn't help much. Thanks to you, pretty much _all _of our memories involve something about pie."

J.J gave a nervous laugh.

"Yeah...yeah...let's just head back up."

Laura nodded.

Then the two of them gathered up their things, each grabbed onto one of J.J's shoulders and headed back up to the castle to enjoy the last day of their fourth year.


	13. What It Is To Burn

**It Seems He Is The Only One Who Knows What It Is To Burn**

"Diagon Alley." Laura disappeared within the flames.

"Diagon Alley." J.J was gone as well.

Ginny grabbed her own fistful of powder and chucked it carelessly into the fire

"Diagon Alley." she mimicked.

_BANG _

She was whipped through the warm air, speeding through the grates until she landed with a thump and found herself next to J.J who pulled her up by her left arm and followed behind the girls as they started down the cobbled street. It was packed today, Ginny noticed. With three days until their return to school most students were in a hurry to buy their new things.

"PORTEEEEER!"

"Oh god." Ginny heard Laura mutter.

A guy with long brown hair, barely an inch short of J.J and bright blue eyes was running full speed towards them

"TRAV!" J.J hollered in the same loud voice, and he too began to run forwards until they both crashed into each other and fell hard on the ground. There was a short pause where they both glanced stupidly at each other, then they burst into loud grunts of laughter.

"Oh _god_." Laura said again.

At the sound of her voice the guy with the bright eyes and teenage good looks pulled himself up off the ground, mopping the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand.

"Well, well, _well." _he exclaimed still grinning stupidly "Look who it is!"

"Yeah it's me you asshole, nice one. How were you planning to turn _that_ into a witty remark?" she said glaring at him.

He blinked.

"You know I don't know!" he threw his arm around Laura's shoulder jokingly

"Oh god."

"You look _well_ Laura."

"The result of two full months without _you_ Travis Chambers."

"Travis _Marian_ Chambers." Ginny giggled

"_What_ did I do to deserve that?" he asked pouting

"You were born." Laura said in a voice of easy loathing.

Ginny giggled again.

"I still love you Trav."

"Of course you do." he said bouncing on the balls of his feet "How could you _not_?"

"It's quite easy actually." Laura commented to Ginny "You just sort of glance at his _face_ and hating him becomes quite simple."

Travis snorted.

"Hitting me where it hurts. But you still can't do _this_-"

"Touch me and I kill you!" Laura screamed backing away with her finger raised in the air

"AAAARGGGH!" Travis cried reasonlessly as he charged after Laura who was now running full tilt. He caught her by the stomach and threw her on his back sideways.

"I got new drumsticks!" he yelled to J.J through Laura's screams, laughter and attempts to escape

"Awesome!" J.J yelled back

"Ohhh god..." Ginny said as she doubled over laughing "He's holding you like one of those old timey water sticks with pales on the sides." she gestured with her arms to explain her point

"You hear that La?" Travis roared to her "You're a stick with pales!"

Ginny laughed, unaware how that was insulting

"And you're a fuck bag with new drumsticks!" she screamed, trying to squirm free.

"Fiiiine don't appreciate my kind services?" he said in a mock hurt voice "Be that way." he let go and she slid back to the ground. "I guess _you_ don't want a ride."

Laura looked up.

"Eh?"

"You can use those short little legs of yours to keep up with me and Jay while _Ginny_ can ride on my back!"

"_What's that now_?" Laura yelled regretfully

"Fine by me!" Ginny shrieked after a snort and hopped onto Travis's back throwing her head back laughing as they started to walk away from Laura. But she wasn't about to take this

"Fuck no!" she screamed running up behind her brother and jumping onto his back

"ARGH!" he yelled taking a step backwards out of nothing but surprise

"Haha!" Laura cried, a triumphant grin spreading across her face "I _am_ the lizard queen!" she raised one arm in the air as her brother resumed walking and she flipped the sky off.

"How've you been man?" J.J asked Travis, ignoring the insane sibling that was riding on his back..

"Can't complain. How're Davinee, Adam and Leon?"

"Haven't heard from them."

"Kyler?"

"Her family's vacationing in America." Ginny piped up.

"So it's just the four of us!" Travis grinned "_Magical._"

"Oh _god_." Laura said, rolling her eyes.

Adam, Leon and Travis were the other three member's of J.J's band_ Kara's Flowers_. Davinee was Leon's stepsister, and Kyler was Davinee's best friend. Ginny hadn't seen any of them since the end of fourth year. Laura, J.J and Travis were her best friends. The other four had their own little circle and though the two were crossed over they were definite and there had been occasions where some people had made it all too obvious where their loyalties lied...

"We'll see them on the train ride." said Ginny "And Dumbledore's probably throwing a Welcome Ball this year. That's always fun."

"Hey yeah!" exclaimed Laura "We can get all fancy and be bitches!"

Ginny snorted and gave Laura a high five from Travis's back.

"Always fun." she agreed taking his cap off his head and putting it on top of the toque she was already wearing

"Oh so sexy." grinned Laura

The fall leaves blew, full of bright colours, all around them. Ginny fingered the buttons on her jean jacket. She was dressed the way she always was...carelessly. She wore hats a lot to cover her insane hair. Today's was striped orange and red, her jeans were loose, dark and ripped at the knees. Her jacket was over a red turtleneck, and her dark sneakers were clearly worn. She had next to no make up on, and a silver chain around her neck. On it was a small rusted key. Ginny had forgotten what the key was for several years ago. She wore it out of habit...

_And sometimes it makes me wonder...is it that easy to forget?_

Laura's hair was twisted into a shiny bun today. Her green shirt was blotched with a message in brown writing that read _Margarita Ville_. Her jeans like many of her other possessions, were identical to Ginny's, except they were being held up by a brown belt. They were too long for both girls, even after being rolled up several times, so they did a job of covering Laura's long black boots. She licked her lips and gave a goofy grin.

"This lip gloss tastes like pie."

"Let me taste." Travis joked

"Raaaaape..." droned Laura lazily in response.

They slumped down the cobbled street, as Ginny and J.J listened to Laura and Travis's argumentative comments towards each other. The autumn sun poured down into her face as Travis walked out of the shade of the trees and someone caught Ginny's eyes.

"Fuck." she muttered to herself

"What's up?" J.J asked turning to her and hiking his sister up his back a bit to keep her from falling.

Ginny didn't answer but stopped gripping her wrist and let herself slide off of Travis's back

"_Gin!_" a voice called

She shuddered. It sounded wrong when he called her that.

"Erm..." quietly she stepped behind Travis who was at least two heads taller than her and would have hid her quite easily if she hadn't already been spotted.

"Ginny." a breathless Migell grinned appearing in front of her. Laura wrinkled her nose and slid off her brother's back. Ginny was unsure if it was intentional.

"Who's this?" Travis asked confusedly, towering over the Minister's son

"Migell Prang." he announced sticking out a hand "Nice to meet you."

Travis stared at the hand for a second before he and Laura both let out loud snorts. Migell looked confused but didn't lower his hand. J.J grabbed it roughly and let go, but didn't offer his name.

"What are you doing here?" Migell said, turning to Ginny

"Just...you know...doing some shopping with my friends." she said innocently

Migell looked up at J.J and Travis.

"Your _friends_?" he said

Ginny frowned

"Yeah." she said defensively.

Laura turned to Migell smiling.

"I'm Laura." she said possibly out of pity.

"Oh." he smiled "Nice to meet you."

"Of course it is." she grinned

J.J gave a loud hacking cough and Laura yanked on his hair. Blankly Migell stared at them clearly weirded out by their behaviour.

"So who is this guy?" Travis asked loudly as though he wasn't there.

"I'm Migell Prang." he said looking irritated at having to repeat himself "I'm Ginny's-"

"Don't mind my Trav, ah..._Migell_. He's just an ass." Laura piped up.

"And you're just a midget." Travis shot unfazed.

Migell blinked and turned his attention back to Ginny

"So what are you really doing here?"

She was beginning to lose her temper which was always reasonlessly short these days.

"I told you I'm shopping with my friends. Don't you ever _fucking_ clean your god damn _upper class ears_?"

Migell didn't look at all insulted. In fact he laughed, which struck Ginny as odd since he got insulted when he had to repeat his stupid fucking upper class name.

She shook her head. She should not have been thinking those thoughts. She _liked_ this boy. She did. She _had_ to like this boy. He laughed again.

"Sure, it's just that I'm here with your family. If you'd have told us you were coming we could have all gone together...I didn't even know you were staying with...who_ are_ these people? I mean why didn't you tell me about any of this? Or your family?"

There was a pause which gave Ginny the opportunity to narrow her eyes.

"Seriously who _is_ this guy?" Travis said blankly

"I _did _tell them. You were sitting right there. Is it my fault if you weren't listening? If they weren't listening? If they don't _ever listen_?" she snapped frantically

"Ginny!" J.J said gently. He put a sympathetic hand on each shoulder and squeezed them. Quietly he began to hum the tune of the song_ 'Only In Dream'._ His band had covered it the previous year and it always calmed her down. Migell looked up.

"Excuse me-" he began "Just what do you think you're doing?"

Travis stared at him.

"Who the _fuck_ is this guy!"

"Okay!" Laura exclaimed, the connection she had always had with Travis springing to life. "Let's stand over here Trav!"

She grabbed his wrist and pulled him away from where J.J and Migell were now locking eyes.

"What's that?" J.J asked

"Take your hands off my-"

"Off your _what_?" Laura spat dangerously, forgetting that she was trying to stay out of the way.

Ginny took a shaky breath as J.J removed his warm hands from her shoulders. She wished he wouldn't have. He took a step forward.

"_Fuck_." she muttered to herself

"I don't see you rushing to make her feel better after you openly tell her that you don't listen to her when she talks."

"Look I think you're blowing this way out of-"

"_I'm_ blowing this out of-?"

"WHO THE FUCKING HELL IS THIS GUY?"

"I'm her boyfriend!" he yelled finally.

Travis stared nonchalantly from Migell to Ginny and then let out a long laugh.

"Excuse me?" Migell cried voice trembling

"Gin seriously?" Travis asked, once again speaking as though Migell could not hear him, "I mean..." he gestured to Migell who was now fuming, and snorted.

"We went out _once_." Ginny said angrily making a mental note to explain later to Travis she was using the term 'went out' very loosely.

"Ginny come and join your family." Migell said as there was no question in the matter. He was almost laughing. He seized her wrist and pulled

"Ow!" she snapped pulling away

"All right that's it!" It was Travis who spoke, "I still don't quite understand who the fuck you are but I don't like you. Got that?"

"We don't have time for this!" Migell exclaimed in a huff

"Guys maybe I should just-"

"Ginny you don't have to go." J.J said kindly, stepping in front of her

"Look maybe I should just go see them for a bit."

"That's right come along now." Migell said speaking to her as though she was a disobedient four year old.

"_In a minute_."

Travis was goggling at them.

"I'll meet you guys later okay? Gimme like half an hour."

Migell raised his eyebrows and she had a strong urge to rip off her arm just so she had something to throw at him.

"Gimme like...forty _five _minutes and meet me at-"

"Come along now Ginny."

He was seizing her wrist again.

"Just meet me here." she said hurriedly starting to tremble

Laura gaped at her

"Okay Gin." she said nodding quickly.

Migell tugged on her wrist and she tripped forward

"_Hey_, leave her alone!" J.J growled

"No Jay, just-well-bye!" she yelled trailing behind him.

The three of them stared blankly after Ginny. Travis's hands were clamped on Laura's shoulders.

"That was kind of...weird." he croaked after the pause

Laura looked uncomfortable and shifted her feet on the spot

"He's not gonna...I mean...he just seemed sort of...he's not gonna like...like hurt her or anything is he?" she said uncertainly, glancing some ways in front of them where Migell was still visible keeping a tight hold on Ginny's wrist

J.J stared avidly in front of him

"I'll kill him. I'll _fucking kill him_ if he _touches_ her." he said plainly

Travis flared his nostrils and let go of Laura's shoulders as they began to walk slowly forward

"You and me both man." he nodded

Laura lay her hands on Travis's shoulders and pushed herself up. He caught her legs without words and kept walking as she closed her eyes, letting out involuntary snorts every so often...

He wasn't letting go of her hand. She didn't want to tell him that it hurt. She could honestly not see the point.

"So when'd you meet those people?" he asked casually

She hid her scowl

"I've known Travis since first year. My family was friends with Jay and Laura's mother even before Hogwarts so I saw them a few times. But their mother didn't get a lot of visitation rights until they found out about their powers. Now they live with her all the time. They actually haven't seen their dad since they found out. He's a muggle."

Migell looked a bit startled though Ginny could tell he had stopped listening about halfway through her bit.

"Really? I wouldn't have thought you'd known them that long. You look like you just met them." he said seriously

"We're really close."

"Didn't seem so."

He wasn't kidding.

"Migell I was riding on Travis's _back_ when you walked up-"

"_That_ I noticed." he said roughly giving her a warning look, "And I didn't quite like it to tell you the truth."

No. That she wouldn't put up with.

"Well you're gonna have to deal buddy."

His grip tightened and she tried to jerk her hand away with no success.

"Ginny dear!" a shrill and familiar voice called.

Migell dropped her hand.

"Hi mum." Ginny said walking up to her

"Quite nice to see you two." her mother beamed. "Migell, Arthur and your father have gone for a drink to discuss Ministry business."

He gave a single nod and put his hand on Ginny's shoulder. She turned to stare at him.

"What?" she asked coldly

He didn't answer. She took a step forwards forcing him to remove it.

"Hey Gin!" called Ron who was exiting Flourish and Blotts with Harry.

"Hey." she said simply as they approached her

"Let's just all walk shall we?" Migell asked smiling.

"What the fuck ever." Ginny muttered to herself

"Huh?"

"Whatever you want." she grinned falsely

And so they walked, and they conversed although since Ginny had only left home three days ago there was little to report and they found themselves jammed in awkward silences.

"What's down there?" Migell asked suddenly

Ron stared at him.

"That's Knockturn Alley you idiot."

Still Migell stared.

"I mean I don't doubt that you've never been _down_ there but you must have heard of Knockturn Alley at some point in you life. Your father's the Minister of Magic."

He just shrugged looking embarrassed. But Ginny wasn't paying attention to him. For some reason she couldn't tear her eyes away from that alley...

"Let's go in I need new robes." Ron said. He gestured to the store to their right.

Ginny didn't reply

"Same, meet me in there." Migell grunted and left.

"Erm...yeah...me...me too okay Harry? Harry?...okay meet me in there." Ron mumbled and stalked away.

Ginny and Harry were left alone staring wide eyed down the alley

"We're going down there aren't we?" Harry asked in an odd hollow voice, gesturing to Knockturn Alley. Strangely enough Ginny did not find herself objecting. Instead she took a step forwards. And a blinding pain flashed through her head. But she didn't stop walking. The pain only increased until she could sense nothing else...

"What about this one?" Harry asked in a high voice that was not like his own

Ginny blinked her eyes open...where was she?

"I...I don't...where are we Harry?"

His eyes widened as she looked around at the odd surroundings

"Why, Knockturn Alley!" he raised a frightening finger. "You WANTED to come."

She stared at him turning red.

"We are not in Knockturn Alley Harry. Why the fuck would we be there?"

He didn't answer. He was far too absorbed in a bright red hand that was sitting eerily on the shelf

And then it became clear to her. They _were_ in Knockturn Alley. But how? And why? Surely Harry couldn't actually believe that it had been her idea to come here...a frantic tear escaped onto her cheek.

"I'm late!" she exclaimed suddenly, glancing at her watch. "I need to go."

Harry looked up

"What?"

"_You're_ coming too, I'm not letting anyone find you here!" she cried, tears streaming onto her cheeks. She grasped his hand.

"_No!"_ he screamed "I won't go! You _can't_ make me. I like it here!"

"Harry come _on_!" she sobbed

"N-ooo!" he clung desperately to the hand but Ginny gave a viscous yank and pulled him along with her as she ran speedily back into Diagon Alley.

"I don't...think...no...no one's spotted us." she confirmed breathlessly glancing around her, still holding Harry's arm.

"Wait...what? Where'd...what's going on?" he asked suddenly. Immediately Ginny whipped her body around and stared at him.

"Harry..." she said slowly. Unknowingly, they dropped hands.

"What...where did Ron go?" he said, voice quavering.

"He's...they're...I don't know where they are, we were just-" she recognized his voice now. It was more like his own, "I mean...I dunno."

"They were just here weren't they?" he looked around frantically

"Erm...yes...they...they must have run off...but I...I need to...I need to go now Harry."

"Huh?"

"I'm late."

"You just got here."

"Sure." she said carelessly as she began to run in the opposite direction. She raised one hand behind her as a way of saying good bye. "I'll see you on the train!" she hollered over her shoulder. Her voice was shaking uncontrollably. She realized she was still quietly crying tears of confusion. But really it was nice seeing Harry again. Sometimes she felt that he understood her. He never really said much but he didn't need to. She could read it in his eyes. She could tell he was feeling what she was. And she could tell it hurt him too. What had just happened she didn't know. But knowing that it hadn't happened to her alone was definitely a least a small bit comforting.

_And it seems he is the only one who knows what it is to burn_

"You're late." Travis grunted when she finally approached to the spot the four of them had encountered her dear boyfriend not an hour ago.

"Good to see you too." she snapped

He gave a sheepish grin and shrugged. Ginny narrowed her eyes. How Travis of him.

"I deserve that, I guess." he smiled

"You have fun?" J.J asked

It was Ginny's turn to shrug.

"Sure..."

He touched her arm and she flinched, expecting him to grab it and pull as Migell had. But he did no such thing, and she smiled weakly as he raised one eyebrow and gently tightened his grip. But she didn't mind at all when he did it. She knew how safe she was.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

She smiled as she pried her arm away and pressed down hard on J.J's shoulders pushing herself up into a jump. He caught her feet as she bent her body around to look at his face.

"Yeah I'm sure." she grinned. "I'm really, really sure."

There was a flowing silence for a split second before Laura gave a small giggle and- a snort.

"That was _so_ cheesy."

"What was?"

"_That!_ That "Yeah I'm sure. I'm really, really sure." it's like god, role the fucking Lionel Richie song and the movie can end."

"Who's Lionel Richie?"

Everyone laughed at her, as they began to step steadily ahead again.

"Christ when are you two gonna learn to _walk_?" Travis inquired. Laura still had her left had gripped in her right, riding on Travis's back.

"Hey our poor little legs can't keep up with your hairy long ones! We're _short._" Laura grinned

"No you aren't." he grumbled

"Yeah they are." J.J pointed out.

"Yeah, I know..."

"Aww, I'm not that much of a burden, am I Trav?" Laura said pouting "I'm not so fat and ugly that you can't carry me for a few hours. Or are you just weak?"

Travis gave a bark of a laugh.

"Yeah, that's it Laura. You're a cow."

"An unbelievably small midget cow. You midget." J.J added.

Everyone laughed but Ginny. No one was telling _her_ she was a midget. Laura acted insulted and Ginny used to too but of course deep down they liked it. It was much better than getting made fun of for being horrendously overweight. Which she wasn't...was she? Maybe J.J was just being nice...he probably didn't actually _want_ to carry her…it probably hurt his back or some such shit. She was really getting too big for this...and if she wasn't than why in hell weren't they including her in this stupid joke? They were always telling so many _stupid jokes_...

Quietly she let herself slide off J.J's back and hopped in front of him, walking hurriedly.

"What are you doing? he asked blankly, "You actually want to walk?"

She shrugged and said nothing, turning red.

"Frooooog leeeegs." Travis guffawed pointing at Ginny.

She looked at him.

"What the fuck?"

"Because...wait frogs have short legs right?" he asked stupidly

J.J didn't answer.

"Gin come on. You don't wanna walk." he said knowingly

Ginny stopped walking. They were all smiling at her. She wished they would fuck off. But the thing is he was right. She really didn't want to walk...and he _was_ offering...even if it was just to be nice or look good or what the fuck ever...

"Okay, you're right." she said apologetically hopping back on his back all the while sucking her stomach in. And Laura _still_ looked thinner than her. She was gaining too much weight. And all she was happy about was that this wasn't new news. And she wasn't going to do nothing about it.

"Hey d'you guys wanna grab an ice cream?" Laura piped up lazily

"No." Ginny answered. "I'm not really all that hungry."

Her stomach gave a low rumble and J.J turned to look at her eyebrows raised

"Are you okay Gin?"

She took a shaking breath.

"I'm great."


	14. Something Getting Stronger

**Something Getting Stronger**

Travis spent those last three nights at the Porters' place along with Ginny. Laura's mother did not return.

"All right, so who's driving?" Laura asked loudly, jangling car keys in Travis's face. She seemed especially on edge today.,. _"Hmmm?_ I can't drive, I'll kill us all."

She threw a dirty, questioning look at Ginny who took a step backwards

"You think I won't? You think I've ever in my life used muggle transpor-"

"I'll do it." grunted Travis, who was muggle-born. "Now I'm not saying I _will_ get us there safely, I'm just saying it seems like I'm the only one who's okay with being the cause of our gruesome deaths. Am I right?"

"Fine, okay, whatever." Laura spat. No one wanted to argue with her behaviour. She turned her lost eyes to J.J who was sitting on the couch. "Where _is_ mom?" she moaned miserably, "She was supposed to be here to drive us to the station and now we're all gonna _die_."

"I would argue with that." said J.J. "But seeing how Trav's driving, there isn't much I can say to comfort you."

"Hey you wanna drive big talker?" Travis growled

"Hell, no."

"Then get your shit in the car and pray for your life."

No one really seemed to be in a good mood that morning. Besides not knowing where J.J and Laura's mom had gone in the first place, they were still stuck wondering why she hadn't told them, if she was safe, why she was late and when she was coming back. Though no one seemed too keen to bring any of this up.

The drive to King's Cross station was a quiet one. They had argued briefly over how to get the car back to the house. It was Laura's idea not to worry about it.

"If mum had cared enough to be here, we wouldn't need to worry about this. It's her's to deal with, not ours." she'd grumbled.

They shrugged it off, figuring they would owl her later. It was tricky fitting about eight suitcases into one small automobile plus Travis's owl, and the cage for Laura's, which was off delivering a letter. But eventually they managed to cram everything inside, before squashing themselves in uncomfortably as Travis began to lazily back out of the driveway. He actually wasn't a horrible driver. No one bothered to tell him this. J.J took out a few packages of pop tarts and passed them around, as they'd missed breakfast that morning. Laura ate hers hungrily and passed the package to Ginny who turned them down. Everyone was so tired, no one raised an eyebrow. She was glad.

Laura was asleep by the time they arrived to King's Cross Station and although Ginny was feeling far too odd to actually fall unconscious she was horribly tired.

"C'mon." Travis mumbled to J.J in the front seat as they arrived.

J.J turned to Ginny. His eyes swept to his sister for a moment which provoked his soft tone of voice

"Me and Trav are gonna go put the suitcases in a compartment, we'll be right back you guys can wait here." he told her quietly. Ginny said nothing

She heard the slams of the boot of the car as the two guys wrestled the suitcases out and dragged them all towards the platform which was easily in Ginny's view. She sighed waiting for them to return. Why had Travis looked at her that way before he left? And why had he not even spoken to her...horrible reasonless questions entered her mind. Paranoia. Poison. Leave her.

Friendless and deserving of her title.

Fat. Ugly. Failure.

"Ginny."

They were back. Travis open Laura's door and picked her up as her long silky hair fell by her shoulders. J.J raised his eyebrows at Ginny and grinned through the open window

"Coming?" he said as he opened her door. She smiled back.

"Yeah, course."

She hopped would be cheerfully out of the car and walked a bit shakily alongside Travis who was carrying Laura, still fast asleep and J.J who was looking down at Ginny.

She figured she would get some water on the train. She hadn't really been eating much but she thought it was doing her a bit of good. A little bit of water should wake her up a bit. J.J put a hand on her back urging her forward a bit as they walked swiftly through the barrier and Laura muttered in her sleep.

"Stupid god...damn fucking...get _off_ you stupid wildebeest those are _my_ fucking Smarties and I _will_ fight you for them."

Kyler, Davinee, Adam and Leon were sitting in the cabin Travis led them to.

"Hey." Travis said laying Laura down across two empty seats.

Kyler smacked gum around in her mouth and looked down at Laura.

"What's with her?" she said plainly

Travis shrugged as the three of them found their seats

"Just tired."

"Oh." Kyler answered carelessly. She smiled "Well hi guys. Hi J.J."

"Hey..." he said slowly. He looked down at Laura and brushed the hair out of her face before turning back to Kyler who was still staring at him

"Have a good summer?" she asked

"It was okay I guess...you guys?"

"It was cool." Leon shrugged.

"Yeah it was okay besides the fact that I was with him the whole time." Davinee smiled jabbing a finger at her step brother who gave a mock offended look and turned his nose up at her

"Boring." said Adam simply "I had to work with my dad."

"You had to work at the-"

"It's a _centre_ for _professional_-"

"Fuck Adam, it's a rooster wrestling rink."

"It's _not_."

"What happens there?"

"People make bets on-"

"On rooster wrestling matches."

"Well yeah but-"

Laura awoke with a pronounced snort.

"Rooster boy!" she giggled

"Shit." he replied, "It's awake."

Laura spit her gum across the room and it hit Leon in the eye as she brushed her dark hair back and grinned.

"There's still some flavour buddy. For you."

Kyler tapped her foot and smacked her own gum around in a disapproving manner. She had thin hair that fell in her face at an angle but had the burned out look of hair that had been dyed several too many times, so that it didn't even really possess any sort of colour anymore. She was bigger than both Laura and Ginny. Taller by quite a few inches, and chubbier thighs were visible as they were wrapped with overly tight jeans that were cutting into her stomach, revealing baby fat that was jumping out uncovered by her black tank top. She had a strange sort of demonically adorable face, her big cheeks enhanced her large confident grin from gloss covered lips. She blinked her pale eyes and chunks of dark mascara jumped on her lashes. She scratched at her large nose with her equally sized fingers growing long nails painted silver

"So?" she prompted as though she'd asked a question several minutes earlier, "Tell me about Kara's Flowers!"

Everyone stared at her

"It's...our band." Travis finally answered looking blank

"Don't be stupid." Kyler snapped, "I mean, what are you guys working on? Anything special? Are you gonna release a CD or-"

"Ummm I don't think we're planning on anything like _that_ anytime soon." Leon answered looking stunned and even a little irritated

"You didn't even let me finish. You guys can't tell me you don't have big plans this year."

There was another awkward pause

"Well...not really." J.J grunted. Laura made an offhand sound.

"But, why not?" Kyler almost yelled "You guys are too good to not go far and you aren't even trying!"

"Well...I mean thanks I guess." Adam said. Everyone was still staring at her "But...Kyler we're just a lame garage band I mean even if we do-"

"I can help you."

"With what?" J.J asked annoyance in his voice

"I dunno! I'll help you guys out so you can get off the ground!"

"We don't _want_ to get off the ground!" Travis growled

Laura gave a vicious nod although it was clear she was confused out of her mind.

"This is so stupid though. You could really go places. I could be like your manager or something. You can write the songs, I'll take the credit."

"'Scuse?" Leon asked sharply

"It was a joke." she looked angry now "God."

Silence briefly rent the compartment just before-

"AND WHAT THE FUCK IS IN THE WATER AT THE PORTER PLACE?" she hollered at Ginny who had her head on J.J's shoulder and her eyes closed. She jumped up and faced Kyler her bright eyes unprepared

"Huh?"

"What are you DOING?" Kyler said in a disgusted voice. But it was clear that she was taking any excuse to be disgusted now.

"I was just-"

"Tired?" she asked sharply. She took a deep breath and fell back down in her seat glaring all around her

"Well-yeah." Ginny said quietly.

Kyler cut her eyes at her

"Christ Kyler clam down!" Leon yelled suddenly, "Where the fuck is this coming from?"

Without warning, her eyes slowly went glassy and Kyler burst into hysterical tears. She jumped from her seat and barged out of the compartment, her sobs disappearing down the hall. All seven of them stared at the door. It was J.J who was first to speak.

"You can go back to sleep if you want Laura...you too Gin…I don't know _what_ is with her…" he said slowly.

Ginny just shook her head, still staring at the compartment door trying to figure out what she did wrong.

"You know she was saying weird stuff to me like that earlier." Davinee told them curiously

"When?" Leon asked "We were with you the whole time."

"When you went across the hall to talk to Caroline and Haley-"

"Caroline's right across the hall?" J.J asked his eyes flashing to the door as if planning out a getaway.

Leon and Adam exchanged looks and grinned

"Yeah lover, why, having second thoughts?" Adam roared

"Why did you turn her down Jay?" Davinee asked, a sort of miserable grin overcoming her face, "She's my friend you know, she's in the Charms club and she's really nice. She's really pretty."

J.J shrugged.

"Yeah she is...I dated her before. I know she's nice." he said slowly

But of course this hardly seemed like a sufficient answer.

"Well _why_?" Laura asked gently

"I just-"

Quite suddenly an oddly familiar sensation came over Ginny as she felt ice sweep through her veins and to her very heart and she heard an equally cold voice she was somehow certain was her own hissing horrible words. Horrible thoughts to horrible words and she knew every one of them was coming from somewhere inside of _her_.

She gasped and jerked her arms to her stomach feeling suddenly sick and still very cold. Her eyes were wide.

"Hey, are you okay?" Travis said quickly. He grabbed her wrist as she doubled over and bent down with her.

"Yeah..." she gasped slowly straightening up a little "I'm..y-yeah."

Everyone was staring at her

"Ginny you're really pale." Adam said urgently "You sure?"

Well of course she was not about to tell them the truth.

"Yeah...I don't...I dunno what happened...I'm fine."

"The trolley's coming by now." said Leon slowly, "Maybe you should eat something Gin."

Her plan was falling through, and Ginny knew that what had just happened simply had nothing to do with food.

"I dunno I had a big breakfast." she said stupidly

"You had a pop tart." Travis reminded her, "Wait...did you have a pop tart?"

"I don't know." she rubbed her face anxiously

"I'll buy." J.J grunted standing up and stepping into the hallway

"What a screwy day." said Laura who couldn't help giggling though she was clearly trying to restrain herself. Travis couldn't not smile weakly at her, his eyes twinkling and his left hand still supporting Ginny's shoulder keeping her from toppling over. J.J walked back in holding large stacks of everything and several bottles of butterbeer. He dumped it carelessly into Leon's lap who grinned

"Hey thanks buddy."

J.J rolled his eyes, as he passed the butterbeer around. He handed Ginny her bottle which she took reluctantly and didn't open. The cauldron cakes and chocolate frogs made their way around the compartment too and J.J placed a few cakes in front of her

"Gin, eat." he said sharply

Ginny slowly took a bite of one of the cakes, and she could feel everyone's eyes burn into her. It tasted far too sweet and soft. And this was far too much. They all needed to fuck off.

"I'm going for a walk." she said in an offhand voice, "I'll see if I can find Kyler or something."

"Hey." J.J said, "You...would you mind just-well check across the hall for Kyler. She's friends with Caroline and Haley..." he trailed off

Ginny gave him a confused look

"All right."

She stepped into the hallway and took a breath free from their eyes. She'd already disregarded what had happened in the compartment. Odd things like that were happening a lot lately, like the incident with the broomstick or the occurrence in Knockturn Alley with Harry. She knew she had no chance of figuring out why. Perhaps she was going insane. Well that would just be fan-fucking-tastic.

"Where have you been? Everyone's looking for you." said a voice from behind her. Ginny turned around and head a compartment door slam. She was facing an angry face with a lot of bushy brown hair. And-fuck had Hermione always been that much prettier than her?

"What?" Ginny asked confused

"You were supposed to come to the Prefect's Compartment." she scolded sternly

"Oh shit. I completely forgot."

"Well I figured _that_. Where's your badge anyways?"

"I dunno, somewhere in my luggage."

It was obvious Hermione was trying very hard not to get angry.

"You'd better straighten yourself out Ginny." she settled on finally "You have so much potential to be a great prefect. Head Girl even, someday. And right now you're being an idiot about everything. Ron told me you ran away from home."

"I _did not_ run away!" she spat without thinking

"No one cares about the technicalities Ginny. No one bothers to look that close. More than often it's just the appearance of a little bit of greatness. And it can take so much more than a little just to get that honorable affect. You don't have to be a disappointment Ginny. You're in all Honors classes this year. _I_ didn't even manage to get into all Honors classes in my fifth year." she raised her eyebrows, "I don't think I should need to be telling you all this. You're too smart. OWLs are this year, and in case you don't already knoweveryone's watching you." she paused and an eerie silence filled the hall. Ginny did not dare argue with her. She was prefect after all. She had to know what she was talking about. And even though her words were making Ginny feel like dirt she took them all in and turned them over. Finally Hermione's elaborate speech ended. "I don't mean to be a prat about this, you know I don't. But I won't watch you accomplish less than you can. Don't play with your future Ginny. And find your badge." and with it she gave an apoplectic wink and slid back into her compartment where Ron's ginger hair was visible.

_But what if I don't want to be Head Girl?_...Ginny thought to herself, _What if I don't want this bullshit?_

But of course she knew that what she wanted was mattering very little lately. Learning to simply let go did not seem like a bad idea. She started down the hall once more, grazing her jean skirt pockets making sure her badge wasn't there.

"Pssst." a voice hissed at her from a compartment she was passing. A blonde head was stuck out the door. It smiled as Ginny looked down at it.

"Hullo." it greeted her, "Are you Ginny?"

"Yes..." she said suspiciously."

The boy stood up and pushed the door open.

"Come in!"

Confused only for a moment longer, Ginny slowly stepped into the compartment, to a familiar face.

"Hi baby."

Ginny had to strain her lungs not to allow laughter to escape. _Baby?_

"Hey Migell." she mumbled hiding the disappointment in her voice

"Well this is the girl I was telling you about." Migell announced smiling matter-of-factly.

"She's nice looking." said a surly boy as though Ginny wasn't there

Migell raised his eyebrows grinning

"I know."

"Erm..." Ginny began uncomfortably

"Sit down!" said the cheery blonde boy who'd invited her in. Ginny took a seat closest to the door and said nothing at all. Migell's hand was running up her thigh...he grinned seductively at her and she looked away but did not dare move her leg.

"So Ginny." said the boy by the window, "What are you into?"

His hand was moving inward, her legs bare and uncovered by her skirt...

"Um...I dunno, I'm big on quidditch. I'm on Gryffindor's team." she said shakily

It had reached the area in between her thighs...

"Oh?" asked the boy raising his eyes disapprovingly "I'm a Ravenclaw. I'm not on the team but I do think we'll manage to slaughter the competition this year."

It was painfully forcing her legs apart...and moving...in. Ginny gave a silent whimper. His hand was inside her

"Oh...well...I dunno we'll see..."she replied trying to sound jokingly competitive and not horrified at was happening...but-it was there. Migell's fingers were grinding into the clit in between her legs. It felt awful and he was grinning. But the table separating the seats made it impossible to tell what was going on.

"Oh god..." she muttered

"You like that?" he whispered in her ear

"Y-yes...but...stop..." she lied stammering

"No way..." he whispered still grinning

"Migell...-please..." she whimpered

"You like that?"

"N-no!"

"Faster?"

"_Stop_"

"Oh...you like it...slow..." he murmured horribly in her ear

She felt him move around inside her sharp pains erupting with his finger. She would've given everything to be able to cry. Finally he pulled out and she took a shaky breath blinking back tears. Why hadn't she stopped him? Had she been enjoying that? Was she that big of a slut?"

"Your turn..." he muttered to her. No one was paying attention to either of them now, the other three boys were sitting across from them having a conversation about quidditch...Migell unzipped his jeans and slid them down the slightest and then picked up Ginny's delicate hand and placed it on his manhood. She could tell he was already aroused...

"Go on..." he mumbled roughly in her ear

Without thinking she jerked her hand away and sprang from the seat shaking worse than ever before.

"Ginny-" he began defiantly

"I really need to go." she gasped shuffling out of the compartment and slamming the door furiously behind her. She had no idea where to go, somewhere where she could be alone and it would not seem odd. She halted at a bathroom and practically threw herself inside where she locked the door securely before scrubbing her hand clean so hard it began to bleed in places.

Then she proceeded to fall to her knees in front of the toilet. She fiercely jabbed her middle finger far down her throat. Her stomach convulsed and she vomited.

Breathing quickly she fell leaning against the wall with her eyes closed tight. She felt considerably better now, with no idea what had provoked that involuntary attack. But she felt as though it had washed away some of the awful thoughts of...everything.

_All alone I fall to pieces_

And she knew it had done her some good. She now weighed one cauldron cake less.

"Dee," J.J began slowly as though figuring something out "You said Kyler is friends with Caroline right?"

Davinee just nodded

"For how long would you say?"

She shrugged

"I dunno..." her voice got considerably quieter "No offense but I don't really like Caroline."

"Hey I don't either!" he cut in defensively holding up his hands, "That's why I _broke up with her?_"

"Yeah two years ago..." she replied cooly

"What's _that_ supposed to mean?" he growled

Davinee stayed perfectly calm.

"It means you were thirteen. Don't you think a bit has changed since third year?"

J.J shook himself, confused.

"Look we're getting off topic. All I'm asking is, d'you think that's why Kyler got pissed off at me?" he asked

"Huh?" she mustered taking over the confusion

"She wasn't pissed at _you_ she was pissed at...god I don't know what _was_ she mad about?" Leon grunted

"Everything." Adam answered plainly

"Yeah but why?"

"It doesn't matter." J.J cut back in, "I just mean d'you think Caroline is- I dunno- telling her stuff about me? Like that I'm an asshole? And to stop hanging out with me? And _that's_ why Kyler was-"

His comment was cut off by grunts of laughter

"I hate to tell you this man," Travis began "But Caroline doesn't think you're an asshole."

"Eh?"

"She more like, worships the ground you walk on." Laura agreed

"What do you-"

"Didn't you get that when she _asked you out _again this summer?" she laughed

"But...I don't get it. I turned her _down_."

"And why by the way?" Adam said cupping his ear

"Because she's a bitch." Davinee answered plainly for him

"I don't think she's a _bitch_, I just don't-"

"She _is_ pretty hot." Travis added

"I don't _care_." he said testily "I just don't...look _I turned her down._ Why does she still-"

"That doesn't matter to her!" Laura told him, laughing with superiority, "She's totally in love with you."

"I don't get how Kyler works into any of this." Leon piped up.

Travis shrugged.

"Maybe she doesn't." he said shortly

"But then why-"

"Maybe she's just PMSing." Davinee said in a final sort of way, "Can we _please_ leave it at that?"

Predictably all three guys shrugged and shifted awkwardly in their seats. Laura and Davinee both grinned.

"Fine." Travis mumbled offhandedly after a while.

J.J shrugged

"It just...doesn't make sense is all..."

Quite suddenly the train lurched to a halt with a high screeching noise, and Laura's tiny figure flew from her seat before Travis caught her round the middle preventing her from smacking her face on the floor. Leon wrinkled his brow

"We aren't already there, are we?" he questioned

"This better not be like that year with those bloody dementors..." J.J commented

Davinne twisted uncomfortably in her seat glancing out the window

"It...can't be...right?" she asked nervously

"Course not." Leon assured her, "See? We're moving again."

They were indeed. Slowly the wheels began to turn again and the floor vibrated gently beneath them. Travis and Laura who hadn't who hadn't moved since he'd caught her shakily found their places again.

"You know what? Gin and Kyler have been gone a while I think I'll go hunt them down." J.J said as the suspense of their mysterious halt lingered. He stood up brushing chocolate frog fragments off of himself and walked out into the hall giving the compartment door a slam.

He didn't need to go far to find Kyler. Clicking open the door across the hall, he found her sitting smugly with a girl with chestnut brown hair hiding warm summer eyes and- J.J's ex girlfriend Caroline Kirth.

"I _thought_ I heard something." Kyler said smoothly

J.J raised his eyebrows. Something was up.

"Erm...we were just wondering where you were, across the hall." he told her simply.

"I'll go back then," she hopped up, "I can see I'm being _missed_."

After her back was turned and she was halfway through the door she whirled back.

"Good _luck_." she spat venomously to Caroline who threw her a dirty look in response. And then Kyler was through the door. Caroline was staring at him with an odd look on her face.

"Hello J.J."

"Yeah hi." he said hurriedly, "Look I was really just looking for Kyler so I think I'll-"

"You think we could talk? It won't take long." Caroline interrupted putting on her cutest face.

"Caroline." Haley warned her in a disgusted and irritated voice.

"Haley." she growled back, "Get out."

"Caroline this is so stupid!" she burst out fast

"HALEY!"

"You're digging yourself into a fucking _hole_ and you know you are!"

"HALEY NO ONE CARES WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT THIS SO GET THE HELL OUT."

Furiously scoffing and cursing under her breath, Haley stood up.

"Stupid." she told Caroline once more before turning to the door.

"Fuck you." her friend responded

Haley shook her head knowingly

"Hey, Jay..." she muttered on her way out

"Hey." he replied as she stalked off without sliding the door shut.

Caroline glared at her friend's back as though jealous that J.J had greeted her so normally. But then she turned back to him beaming.

"Forget her." she began, "So."

J.J said nothing.

"Jay why're we playing this game?" she asked as though he was a disobedient two year old.

"I have no idea what you mean."

"Come on..." she said softly. She stood up and walked up so close to him he was pinned to a wall "I mean I don't even remember why we broke up, do you?"

"Erm...you _cheated _on me with Marcus Flint!" he cried irritably, "And I _still _haven't told anyone about that _just_ because you _asked_ me not to! But maybe you aren't worth that if you're gonna pull this "Why'd we break up?" bullshit! Did you _seriously_ fucking _sit_ here and like _plan_ this out? And you thought it would work didn't you? You're_ that_ full of it."

Caroline looked utterly unphased.

"Hey now," she said still using her soft seductive voice, "Let's not go doing that. We grew apart. I know neither of us knows why-" J.J gave an exasperated growl "-but we both still feel the way we used to."

She was stroking his face now. Annoyed, he pulled away.

"So why're we doing this?" she murmured in his ear

"Caroline no." he said trying to make her see reason. Or just fuck off.

"We're different now." Though that was not the case at all. "We've changed."

"Well I haven't changed."

"Maybe I have." he told her, his voice shaking

"I don't think so..." she almost whispered "I mean come on, you loved me once right?"

J.J was fuming.

"You know what?" he told her completely truthfully, "No."

"I don't believe you." she replied immediately, though her voice was losing its low sexy feel. "I think you're just scared."

Ridiculous.

J.J couldn't help but roll his eyes.

"Oh _please_! This is _not_ a fucking TV drama, don't try to turn this into something stupid. I won't date you. But _not_ because I'm _scared_. Fuck what would I have to be scared _of_?" he hollered before he could stop himself

She gave a soft chuckle.

"You were always a bad liar."

"I'm not fucking lying."

"You're _not?_...well...I don't think I believe that Jay...but I know how to find out..." she whispered

She wrapped her arms around his neck and entwined their lips searching his mouth. It was a few seconds before the shock wore off and J.J's common sense clicked in. He pulled away, a disgusted look on his face. But he said nothing. He had nothing to say to her. A wisp of dark red hair had flashed through his vision for but a second before he pulled away. He heard quickened footsteps, moving away...something clicked..._Ginny. _

"_Fuck."_ he muttered ripping his hands away from hers.

"Wait!" she cried frantically trying to latch back onto him.

"I'm sorry Caroline." he told her. "But...Davinee's right about you."

Without another word he slid into the hall and strongly yanked the door to his own compartment open.

"Mother _fuck_ Kyler!" he yelled before even locating her.

"What?" she asked innocently as he spotted her by the window.

"Did Ginny come in here?" he asked before referring back

"Erm, no..." said Laura questioningly "I thought, _you_ were looking for her..."

"Yeah...yeah...I just...th-thought I saw her come by here..."

"Why are you _yelling_ at me!" Kyler snapped on the verge of tears again.

"As if you don't know."

"Dude _what_-"

"Wait Trav." Laura shushed him quietly as everyone stared intently from Kyler to J.J.

"Why the hell would you sit there and_ plan out_ Caroline trying to-to-to_ seduce_ me or some shit! You're my friend, you know I don't like her, you know I've turned her down, why-...I mean do you know how stupid that was? Why would you put me through that, why would you put _her_ through that?"

"Her?" Leon piped up

"Yeah!" he yelled "I mean...I mean I know I'm not very...it can't be very fun getting rejected can it? I don't mean to sound like a cocky little shit but why would you set her up for that! She's your friend!"

"Okay, so you thought that I could have been setting her up for rejection and, I guess you're not happy that I knew you were getting back together before you did, but _still_, you must be happy! It all worked, out and you're a couple again! _You're welcome!_"

"We're not _together_ again!"

A blank look took on Kyler's face

"You aren't?"

"_No!_ What have I been telling-"

"So wait, wait, wait, wait." she asked him as a grin slowly spread across her face, "You turned her _down_?"

"_Yes._"

Kyler was beaming ear to ear now.

"Oh." she said in a would-be-casual way as she leaned back down in her seat, "That's nice."

Confused J.J gave himself a shake

"Look just forget it, Ginny didn't come in here?"

"Nope." Adam told him

"And I think we're there." Travis added peering out the window

"Well I'll come help you find her I guess, or we won't hear from her until after the feast." Laura put in standing up.

Everyone else slowly stood up too and the train came to a considerably slower stop.

"Patterson, Jacob."

"Here."

"Per Sulvy, Rebecca?"

"Here."

"Porter, James...Porter, James."

Silence filled the room. Professor McGonagall looked up from her attendance sheet as the other fifth year students glanced around them.

"Porter James." she repeated annoyingly, "James Porter. Where is J.J Porter?"

No one said anything. A few rippled shrugs could be seen through the crowd.

"Porter, Laura." Professor McGonagall stated looking back down to her list.

Silence again.

"Now really! Laura Porter!..._Where_ are J.J and-"

She was interrupted by quick pattering footsteps. Everyone peered behind the crowd

"I'm here." J.J exclaimed breathlessly running up, "Laura's-"

"I'm here too." she breathed running up behind him

Professor McGonagall raised her eyebrows.

"This lateness had best not transfer into my class this year J.J." she told him sternly. "And if it does, I advise you not to drag Miss. Porter down with you."

Laura let out a snort.

"Yeah, Jay how could you let me be late like this?" she prodded him, but fell silent under Professor McGonagall's withering stare

"Find her?" Travis muttered

J.J shrugged...

"Nope."

"Pygaminee, Ian."


	15. The Undermath

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Uber Quick Author's Note: Yes this chapter did take forever to get up. No it isn't super interesting. Not much happens. Not to spoil a chunk of the story but as of now everything is just building up to the ball. A couple more chapters, a flashback or two and I'll get the ball chapter up. It'll be good, that much I swear I'm working on making it like...an epic. Mwa ha good word. Pffft well yeah. Just a chapter to tie up a couple of loose ends and untie a couple others. The usual shin dig. A bit of background I never bothered to give out before...the band name Kara's Flowers, was actually the name of Maroon 5 for a little bit before they got big and changed their name. I forget where I found that out...And the title Perfect Teeth is a song by Motion City Soundtrack. And a damn GOOD song by Motion City Soundtrack. Well yeah. This wasn't exactly uber quick but mother fuck it...enjoy the chapter!

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**The Undermath**

Professor McGonagall ran a lean finger down her list impatiently.

"We are still missing three fifth years." she said sternly, "Ginny Weasley, Caroline Kirth, and Kyler Macintosh. Has anyone heard from them?"

Laura stood on tip toes to whisper in her brother's ear

"Kyler and Caroline are missing too?"

"I guess so..." he muttered furrowing is brow

"No matter. We cannot wait any longer!" Professor McGonagall snapped when no one answered her, "Fifth years clear the Entrance Hall! Sixth years gather round for roll call!"

"They're together then aren't they?" Leon asked "The three of them? Where d'you suppose they are?"

"They aren't together necessarily." J.J said bitingly "Laura go save us seats before the whole Gryffindor table is full."

"Aw, why do _I _have to-"

"Because, you're a midget. And you know that. So stop wasting time and go."

Laura snorted and raised her eyebrows as she walked up bouncing on the balls of her feet, slipping easily through the crowds

"Someone has itchy balls..." they could hear her mutter before she disappeared entirely

"Yeah, what's up with you?" Adam asked J.J

"Nothing. Just-Kyler. I mean...I have a bone to pick with her."

"Yeah, what was that about on the train?" Davinee asked curiously "Neither of you seemed too keen to go into detail on what exactly happened that caused the...thing."

J.J grinned.

"Forget it, it's nothing really."

The five of them found their seats Laura had predictably found and saved easily. The crowd settled down quite fast when Dumbledore stood before his podium. This always managed to generate an air of excitement. He gave them a toothy smile

"Welcome. Students, teachers, ghosts, and other creatures to whom I do not have time to address, which I apologize for. A new year is upon us once more. To our new blood– welcome. And our old hands- I suppose it must be getting old by now."

He paused a muffled laughter rang through the Hall

"A few brief announcements as always, before our delectable feast gets the better of us. First years note that the Forbidden Forest, is as its name implies. And although the title "Whomping Willow" does not specifically give a warning of caution to those too careless to pay close attention– I am giving it now. Keep away. Also, this year as most members of the Hogwarts Quidditch teams are probably already aware...you are fighting for much more than then the Hogwarts Quidditch Cup."

Dumbledore pursed his lips patiently as silent chatter broke out

"What's he mean?" Travis asked confusedly

Laura shrugged and made a face

"This year...Hogwarts is playing host to a new experiment. It has a long boring, complicated title, and many long, boring, equally complicated rules and denominations that I shall not befuddle you with as they will most likely be rendered insignificant and I assure you they will be of little importance to any of you anyways. This year the team victorious at winning our Quidditch Cup...will get a chance to fight for _the_ Quidditch cup. The following summer they will join the official league and do their best at leading Hogwarts to victory at winning the Quidditch World Cup."

Predictably not many students bothered to attempt to keep quiet this time.

"Holy shit." said Travis blankly

Laura wrinkled her nose

"Is he actually serious?" J.J asked wide eyed

"Wow...this is...big."

When the chatter finally died down Dumbledore took up again. The students were restless in their seats however and ready for the feast. Not many listened to his elaborate speech.

"...but I need you all to know that I will always be here if any of you are in need of a chat. I can always be reached. We hope that you will fight against all that is wrong. And we will show you how."

He paused once more. The Hall was silent.

"And lastly, the Welcome Ball will take place two weeks from today. Formal atire should be worn. Dress robes or muggle dress clothes. Attendance is as always, optional but recommenced. But without further ado, I invite you all to– tuck in."

The silver plates and goblets filled magically with delicious looking food. Laura's face lit up.

"Excellent." she said reaching for the potatoes.

"Hey."

Ginny had appeared at their table

Travis raised his eyebrows

"Hey, stranger."

She was looking highly shaken up, and not quite sure where she was. Her eyes were red.

"Where've you been?" J.J asked grabbing a roll

"Um...prefect stuff..." she mumbled

"You weren't by any chance, with Caroline and Kyler, were you?" he asked

Ginny's back stiffened.

"We met." she said briefly, "I'm not sure where they are now."

"Well are you gonna-"

"Actually, I'll be right back." she said hurriedly. And she'd disappeared again within the blink of an eye. Adam stared at the place she'd been standing seconds ago.

"Well all right then." he said stabbing at a piece of chicken.

Ginny hurried quickly out of the Hall, and made her way to the bathroom. She looked over her shoulders feeling harassed. When she arrived, she flicked the silver lock on the stall door shut and hardly even knowing what she was doing, jammed her finger, now for the second time, down her throat and paused shaking as her stomach convulsed and she vomited. And she felt relieved. She had needed that. She let a shaking hand unlock the door and after quickly glancing at herself in the mirror, headed back to the Great Hall. Things were of course not winding down yet. People were still laughing and eating and talking. It was too loud. Ginny took a seat in between Travis and Leon.

"So, wanna explain?"

"Explain what?" she asked Travis suspiciously

"This quidditch thing." he said in a muffled voice as Laura shielded her face with her hand from the peas that were flying out of his mouth. "You must've known about it, why didn't you say anything?"

Ginny's mouth dropped genuinely

"Oh my god you're right. I did know. I _completely_ forgot about that." she said honestly, laughing at her own stupidity. She still loved quidditch. She would've told them. She didn't know why she had forgotten. A lot of things were slipping past her lately.

"Well are you pissing your pants excited or what?" J.J asked

"Yeah, it's gonna be good." she nodded energetically "I hope we win."

"Oh god, we will for sure." Adam assured her. "Can you imagine Slytherin playing for the Quidditch World Cup? It won't happen."

"It isn't like they don't have a chance." she corrected him, feeling herself get worked up. "I mean, we have a better team hands down, but you don't see us winning every year, do you?"

"I'm not too caught up in the politics." Leon put in, "I just know we'll win."

Ginny pushed around her uneaten roll on her plate.

"If you say so..." she mumbled

"Well hello my blue jean babies." came an oily voice

"Kyler!" Davinee exclaimed, "Where have you been?"

"Here, and there." Kyler smiled carelessly

"You missed rollcall." Adam told her

"I know, Caroline went to go find McGonagall and tell her we're here." she said with a glance at J.J. "Hello Ginny. Hello Jay."

Ginny looked up daringly from her plate and narrowed her eyes.

"Hi."

"Well don't I feel special!" Davinee snapped

Kyler rolled her eyes.

"Sorry. But I need to talk to-"

"Gang's all here!"

"It just keeps getting better..." Adam grumbled as the ever lovely Caroline appeared by Kyler's side grinning freshly glossed lips.

"Is something going on?" Travis asked suspiciously

There was a silent pause.

"No." Caroline answered finally in a stiff voice. "But you wanna shove over so I don't starve?"

Reluctantly Travis slid over two spots and Kyler and Caroline sat down.

"So." said Adam who was usually very open with everyone, "Not to be rude or anything, but it's been a while since I've seen you Caroline."

"It's been a while since we've _all_ seen you." Laura said raising her eyebrows

"I've been around. Maybe you just weren't looking hard enough."

Caroline raised her own eyebrows seductively and Laura let a small grunt of laugher escape.

"Well why weren't you two here for rollcall?" Leon asked

"You three." Davinee corrected who was just as curious as to why Ginny hadn't been there

"We were sort of wandering the train, lost track of time." Caroline said innocently ...but she was looking down, avoiding eye contact. "I wanted to see the Sorting, but what are you gonna do?" she shrugged

"Aren't you gonna eat?" Travis asked Ginny on a completely different note, wrinkling his eyebrows at her full plate. Caroline looked angry at being interrupted.

"I'm not that hungry...I feel kind of... weird." Ginny shrugged

"Bad weird?" J.J asked glancing at her

"Bad weird."

"You should still eat, you were practically starving yourself on the train." he said. He tossed her a roll and she caught it. "We could head up to the common room now if you want."

"I'd really like that but I've gotta show the first years where they're going." she said jabbing a finger at the badge on her chest. "I just love this thing."

"You weren't wearing that before, were you?" Laura asked her

Ginny shrugged

"Nah, I dug it out of my luggage before I came to the feast.

"It doesn't really match your robes." Caroline said coldly

"Not much I can do about that, now is there?" Ginny asked her.

Travis laughed.

"Well whatever, if you really feel like shit though, I'll head up with you. Giving directions to first years isn't really a two person job. Whose the other new Gryffindor prefect anyways?" J.J asked

Just as Ginny was about to say she wasn't sure–

"I am." Caroline said with a grin.

There was a pause.

"You are?" Davinee croaked finally

"That's right."

No one felt too keen to say anything.

"Well I guess your badge won't really match your robes either." Ginny told her slyly.

Caroline narrowed her eyes. Ginny's face was burning.

"But actually...I think...yes I think _I'm_ going to head up to the common room now. I'm feeling a little off colour myself." Caroline said throwing a cough at the end of her sentence. "Wanna head up with me J.J?"

He shrugged, looking awkward.

"Sure, I guess, if you want. You guys mind?"

Adam shook his head

"It's cool. I'll grab your suitcase before I head up for you."

"Thanks. Feel better Gin." he stuck a hand on her head and messed up her hair, grinning before walking off unwillingly behind a perfectly healthy looking Caroline.

No one spoke for a moment.

"That was new." Laura said daringly, as Kyler was still sitting there with watchful eyes.

"No it was old. It was _ancient._ I'd almost forgotten about it." Leon corrected.

"It was weird." said Adam, "I didn't like it."

Kyler said nothing

"This is too fucked up. I'm confused." Laura added

"What else is new?"

"Fuck you."

"It won't last." Travis said knowingly. No one dared to question him. "Seriously it won't. Fate's already set."

"Meaning what?" Kyler asked suddenly. Travis stared her down weighing his options. Laura was looking intently at her mashed potatoes.

"Nothing, forget it." he answered.

"That was really bitchy how she just left, so you would have to sit through the whole feast Gin." Laura said carelessly

Kyler slammed a fork down as she stood up, rattling everything on the table.

"You guys are so cruel. You just sit here and talk about her behind her back, _what _did she ever do to you?"

"Kyler Jesus!" Davinee snapped finally "_When_, did you become friends with her?"

"You've always said you liked her! Always on about how you're in the Charms Club together! You said you-"

"I also said that, that blue mascara you wear makes you look cute." Davinee said coldly

Immediately Kyler burst into another fit of hysterical tears, gathered her belongings and scurried out of the Hall.

"Whoa..." Adam said slowly "I am _so_ glad I'm not a girl. They're fucked in the head."

Davinee through him an evil look and he stared down at his plate

"Yeah, can you spell PMS?" Leon guffawed

"Yes but I bet _she _can't!" Davinee spat "_Idiot!_ Who the _fuck_ hangs out with Caroline Kirth?"

"A lot of people actually." Laura pointed out "And we used to like two years ago...and...yeah you _did_ say you liked her didn't you? On the train? You were asking J.J why he wouldn't go out with her!" she grinned "Man, we _are_ fucked in the head."

The feast seemed much longer than usual. When finally dinner ended, there was still dessert, and Dumbledore's final words before finally Ginny led the apprehensive looking first years up to their dorm.

"It's time for bed now like Dumbledore said." she told them in a monotone even though it was hardly 10:00.

"Awwwww!" a girl a head taller than Ginny moaned in a high voice "Can't we stay up just a bit longer!"

"Uh, no." Ginny answered bluntly. "It's late, go to bed."

"It isn't late!" another one cried excitedly

"It's very late. You must be running a fever. You're delusional. All the more reason to go to bed. And don't think I won't know if you don't."

And with it she shut the door in the girl's face. Obviously they wouldn't be going to sleep, but at least now she could say she tried. As tired as she felt, Ginny was not in the mood to go to sleep. She made her way down to the common room, which was mainly full of fifth and sixth years lounging around, half in uniform half in bed clothes, talking and laughing with their friends.

Leon, J.J, Travis, Laura and Kyler were taking up the area before the fire.

"Hey Gin," Laura greeted her

Ginny sat down

"Hey...where's Caroline?"

J.J shrugged

"Went to bed."

"And what're we all doing down here?"

Travis scowled jokingly.

"Having a jolly good _time_, can't you _tell_?"

Ginny couldn't help but laugh. She took a seat on the floor by the couch, and Laura wasted no time in resting her feet on her shoulders.

"Mother of _shit_, it's cold!" Laura exclaimed suddenly

"Yeah, and your feet smell." Ginny added

She wiggled her toes innocently.

"Maybe they smell when they're cold."

"_I'm_ cold and _my_ feet don't smell."

Just as Ginny was about to respond, Laura's foot brushed her right hand and she jumped.

_Your turn..._

Quickly she withdrew her hand, digging her fingernails into it and blinking back tears. Laura set down a quill on the floor next to Ginny, along with a note she'd been writing.

"For mom..." she said in answer to J.J's questioning glance

"Hey, I'm going to the bathroom." Kyler said suddenly.

"Thanks for sharing." Leon grinned and she whacked him playfully with the back of her hand before heading up the staircase.

"She left her bag." Laura said after a pause. When no one answered she stood up and walked over to the table by the fire where Kyler's bag was lying entwined with Ginny's.

"Hey, Gin you really need a new bag you know." Laura said glancing down at it.

Ginny went red.

"I know..." she mumbled offhandedly "But until I get some...until I can...it's fine for now." she said looking down at her beaten bag, complete with rips, tears and broken zippers wishing her family wasn't poor.

Laura bent down, as Ginny watched her feeling a bit sad...if Laura only spoke to her to point out things wrong with her...she tried to shake the feeling off and just enjoy being back at school. Just enjoy not being at home anymore, as Laura rummaged around.

"I wonder if she has gum or someth-"...she paused staring down at something that had fallen to the ground from one of the bags. Laura picked it up. It was a small bottle of large purple pills. The bottle had no label. She looked at them, her bright eyes odd. "What are these?" she asked slowly.

Ginny stared from Laura to the pills, not blinking, not moving. Something wasn't right at all.

"Kyler isn't sick is she?" Laura wrinkled her brow

J.J shook his head...

"No...she would have told us...or we would have noticed...she doesn't have asthma or something does she?"

"No." Travis crushed that idea "The only one who has asthma is-"

"Me." Laura agreed. She was still looking at the pills "And even so you don't take _these_ whoppers for something as stupid as asthma..."

"Gin these aren't yours are they?" Leon asked her.

Ginny just shook her head and blinked.

"Let me see." Travis grunted, reaching over as Laura stood on her knees and handed him the bottle. He examined it and moved it around in his hand before twisting off the small white cap and dumping one of the pills into his hand, his grin slowly fading away. "Vietax..." he read off the thick violet pill. Travis paused. "These are diet pills."

Ginny could have sworn she saw J.J's dark eyes flash momentarily to her before he looked away.

"Diet pills?" Laura croaked.

"Yeah and bad ones." Travis said raising his eyebrows and frowning. "My cousin Jenna got hooked on these things...and it was...awful." he gulped. "They work too well. You could eat a Christmas feast then eat half a Vietax and drop twenty pounds by the next morning. They freak you out you know? You go all psycho and get really sick..." He was staring intently at the little tinted bottle...finally he looked up, worried. "They _aren't _yours are they Ginny?" he asked her in a very serious voice.

"_No_." she pressed.

"And you would tell us if they were right?" Leon asked her

Ginny was growing annoyed.

"_Yes_."

"Because you know you _don't_ need diet pills. That's ridiculous." Travis told her slowly, not lowering his eyebrows.

_Yes you're fine nice and plump._

"Stop talking to me like I'm four, I know I don't!" she snapped.

J.J looked up heavily.

"Then...they must be Kyler's." he concluded. Laura sat back down on the couch shakily. Footsteps and muffled voices were coming from the Girl's Staircase. They all glanced to the right.

Davinee and Kyler approached, both grinning and chatting.

"Hey." Kyler smiled walking back in and sitting down. No one said anything.

"Who died?" Davinee asked finally. Travis glanced up awkwardly

"Kyler are these yours?" he asked her bluntly. He held up the little bottle and gave it a shake as the grin on Kyler's face slowly faded away.

"Oh those!" she said with a laugh "Yeah-well, yeah and no. My mom took one, I dunno where she got them. But then it started making her feel kind of weak and then she figured out what they were and that they weren't what she thought they were so she just stuck them on top of the piano for the time being...I guess...I guess they must have fallen into my bag or something when I was getting ready."

Travis didn't seem convinced.

"You know what these are right?" he asked her

She nodded. "Yeah, and it's a good thing."

"You know what these can do to you right?" his eyebrows were still raised.

"Of course I do Trav. It's not like I've taken any!" she protested, smiling

Travis lowered his eyebrows a little.

"And you're telling the truth?"

Kyler stared at him a split second before giving a huge nod.

Travis lowered his hand that had the bottle in it and set them slowly onto the table as if the Vietax were made of glass.

"Well...okay." he said allowing his smile to return.

Davinee glimpsed around the room.

"Everyone can smile now!" she said with almost a nervous laugh. "What were you guys talking about before this?"

"Well before any of this started?" Leon asked "I think it was about how La and Gin are-"

"Cooooold!" Laura exclaimed

"Shut _up_, La you're making me colder!" Ginny yelled with a giggle, as the tension slowly faded off

"Here take my sweater," J.J said pulling it off and tossing it over to Ginny. Both girls latched onto it, digging their nails into the fabric.

"Noooooo!" Laura moaned

"As much as this amuses me..." Travis laughed "Take my sweater Laura."

Laura dropped her brother's sweater and smiled as she caught Travis's

"Mwa ha!"

Kyler had been extremely silent, and was growing red

"Gin, come here I wanna talk to you a second."

Ginny said nothing at first, still absentmindedly stroking her right hand from what seemed like hours ago, when the horrible memory of the train had jumped on her. Her friends didn't seem to hate her...except perhaps Kyler...

"_Oh well..."_ she thought. _"Let's see."_

She stood up and allowed Kyler to lead her to an empty corner of the common, room where before she addressed Ginny she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Confused, Ginny wrinkled her eyebrows.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Kyler asked her finally in a would be calm voice

Ginny blinked.

"Huh?"

Losing her cool, Kyler threw her hands up in the air in protest

"You're totally hitting on the guy I _totally_ like!" she hissed in a high voice

"What? Jay?"

"Yes Jay! Who the fuck do you think?" she cried growing even redder. Ginny saw Travis glance over. She ran an anxious hand through her hair. Of course Kyler liked J.J. And hated Ginny. And of course they would probably end up together and J.J would hate her also. And she would be left with jackshit.

"I don't know what the fuck you're talking about." Ginny told her quietly trying to divert attention from their conversation

"Like shit you don't. It's so obvious." Kyler continued angrily, "Oh J.J I'm _so_ sick. I'm so miserable. I'm so _cold._ I need you to give me your sweater and hold me in your big strong arms and make everything all better." she cooed in a sickly voice.

"Stop it Kyler, shut up." Ginny warned her, tears stinging her eyes.

"Look. I get that everyone on Earth seems to think you're perfect. Perfect, smart, tiny, beautiful, sweet _Ginny_. But you should know that there are people who see through you, all right? So stop playing innocent. You know I like him. And now you have no excuse for flirting with him. Except that you're a bitch. And you know I _totally_ covered up for you back there!" she cried throwing her hands in the direction of the fire. "I could have just told them the pills aren't mine!"

"The pills _are_ yours!"

"Are not!"

"Bullshit! You must have put them in my bag!" she screamed

"They were in _your_ bag. They're _your_ diet pills." Kyler told her in a thought out manner

"And why the fuck did you put them in there anyways?" Ginny asked her shakily, her eyes welling up "Were you trying to get me to use them? Is it your way of calling me fat? Or did you want people to find them and then treat me like a mental patient? Or an anorexic slut? Or is it just some stupid reasonless joke!"

"STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM J.J!" Kyler shrieked abandoning all reason. She stomped her foot and her hair flew up into her red face.

"I thought Caroline wanted to go out with J.J." Ginny said questioningly "I thought that you two were friends."

Kyler's eyes went wide.

"Fuck." she muttered in a low voice. "Well whatever. It doesn't matter all right? Just-just I hope you're starting to get it. There are people who don't love you. And J.J doesn't so just...just give up and move on! He isn't interested!" she cried frantically

Ginny shook on the spot, her eyes going glassy. She didn't think to deny anything Kyler was saying.

"Fuck you." she managed to muster before wiping a tear away from her eyes and heading quickly up the stairs to get to bed.


	16. Daughters Of Rock Stars Stay Princesses ...

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Broken people come from broken homes and drag broken smiles whereever they go...xxxDean Kirbison

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**Daughters Of Rock Star****s Stay Princesses Forever**

The first few days of school passed in solitude. In silence. It was not the same. But no one dared say anything. If they didn't say anything perhaps it wasn't true.

Ginny was locked in a state of permanent frustration, devastation...she would have given anything to not care again. To love life again. To be perfectly content with just sitting and doing nothing. At laughing at nothing... to feel something, to feel at all. She was so envious of Kyler, of Caroline of anyone who was not her. At least they loved. At least they _were_ loved in return. She felt as though her life had peaked at fifteen. It was too late for her to do anything amazing, or to even have any fun. It wouldn't be as amazing as it would have been if she had done it when she was fourteen. It wouldn't be as fun. And every night something broken haunted her dreams... and though she would have given her all for it to be rebuilt...or simply to know what it was...she knew it was not her friend. No more were the shadows that seemed untouched by it... Living just seemed so hard. She was always wondering, what people were thinking and why. And when everyone else would start catching onto Kyler's sentiments. She wasn't perfect anymore. Perhaps she never was. Who could be next to Ron, best friend of the famous Harry Potter, hand in defeating Lord Voldemort three times...Percy, one of the youngest ever employees at the ministry...Charlie, captain of the quidditch team...best seeker since Harry's own father.

She just wanted to turn off her mind. She didn't want to think. She didn't want to be. But you always lose control, just when you need it the most.

_I think I'll just close my eyes _

"Come...we must see that it is working..."

"My Lord it's far too cold...it is far too dark..."

"I do like the dark..." Ginny murmured almost longingly in a cold voice "I have always liked the dark...unless...you wish to hide it from me?"

"No my lord!" the faceless man cried frantically

"Good...good...so then...you mean to say...it is working. Yes?"

There was a pause...Ginny's voice had sounded almost scared. And somehow this seemed most irregular.

"_Yes!"_

"Yes my lord!" the voice responded immediately "It is...it is working."

"And you are sure?"

"I am sure."

Ginny slapped a hand to her head as the sun gleamed through the newly opened window and ended her nightmare.

"Rise and shine." Davinee's groggy voice could be heard saying.

Ginny sat up in bed to see she had pulled the curtains open. She sighed. If only...if only...she had really wanted that dream to continue.

Laura gave a grunt from underneath her pillow and Davinee smiled.

"You need to get up La." she said gently, walking over and yanking away her covers.

"Urrrrgggh..." Laura groaned. She sat up in bed too. "I miss the summer."

"Oh, just get up." Kyler grumbled tying her hair back, and making her way to the bathroom.

Ginny stood up too. She wasn't in the mood to stay in bed. But Kyler had the bathroom first, so she would need to wait a few minutes. She pulled her robes out of her trunk and ran a brush through her hair.

"Gin, what are you doing?" Davinee asked as though just noticing her

"Huh?"

"Don't you have quidditch practice?"

She shook her head

"Got moved to tomorrow..."

"Oh." Davinee answered, "All right."

Kyler stumbled out of the bathroom a few minutes later, wearing a lot of make up and left the room without saying a word. Ginny just took a minute to change and splash some cold water on her face, before she closely examined her figure in the mirror... It looked awful. She gave her hip a pinch, and it hurt her. But she deserved it. She pinched it one more time, as if trying to make herself thinner. Then wrinkled her nose at what she was doing. It was odd. It was odd that she enjoyed it. She shuddered, sweeping her long red hair behind her shoulder and left the bathroom.

"I'm heading down." she told Davinee. Laura had already left the room.

"See you in a minute." Davinee said with a yawn.

Laura and J.J sat waiting for Ginny and the others on the couch. Travis was in the chair next to them with his feet up on the little wooden table by the fire, finishing his Charms homework. Suddenly the portrait hole gave a loud slam and a husky boy of about sixteen walked in strongly looking around. The common room was almost virtually empty, and the first person the boy spotted was J.J so he gave a curt nod and walked over.

"Hey." the boy said in a deep, but welcoming voice "I'm Barry. I got transferred to Hogwarts really late last year so I don't know many people here."

"Oh, hey." he smiled in return "I'm J.J, and this is my little sister Laura...that's Travis over there..."

Laura smiled and Travis raised his index finger in a way of greeting but didn't look up from his work. And Laura didn't bother to correct her brother. She never did. Whenever he introduced people to her, he always called her his little sister. His younger sister. It was never his twin, or even just his sister. Of course technically J.J was born first, but only by about seven minutes. But Laura never even noticed the way he always introduced her. It just seemed normal. It always had.

"Hey." Barry gave another toothy smile to Laura, "Any of you guys know..." he paused to lift a worn little piece of paper to his eyes and let them fly briefly across it "A...Katie Bell...Ginny Weasley...Ron Weasley...and Harry Potter?"

"Yeah, why what's up?" Laura asked

Barry waved his hand

"Quidditch stuff...you know where I can find them?"

"Well Ginny's upstairs, she'll probably be down any minute...I actually haven't seen Katie since school started..." she shrugged

"Yeah, and I saw Harry and Ron in the Boy's Dorm Hallway when I was heading down. You can go look for them up there but I expect they'll be down pretty soon too."

A grin spread across Barry's face.

"That's great, thanks. Then I'm just missing..."

"Redpath and Junior?"

Barry scanned his minuscule list again.

"Dustin Redpath and Danny Edgar Plinch Jr..Yeah."

"They usually get up pretty early and head down for breakfast before anyone else. They might be in the Great Hall." Laura said helpfully.

He grinned again.

"Thanks, you've been a big help, I-"

Just then Ginny appeared at the bottom of the Girl's Staircase

"There she is." Laura said pointing to her friend with her thumb.

Barry's eyes jumped to the parchment in his hand.

"Katie?" he asked wildly

"Ginny." she corrected "And you are..."

"Barry." he answered, in a hurried manner.

"Oh." she said figuring it out and wrinkling her brow, "Is something up with the practice tomorrow?"

He shook his head quickly

"Nope. I just need to round the team up because we've got practice right now."

"But...what about the practice tomorrow?" she asked confusedly

"What about it? It's still on. We just have one right now too. And maybe tonight. I haven't decided." he said extremely fast

"But class starts in like a half hour!" she exclaimed

Barry just shook his head again.

"Screw class. Forget about it. The practice is just an hour and a half. Nothing big. You'll be able to make it to second period. What d'you have this morning anyways?"

"Honour's Potions." Ginny said in almost a nervous voice. It wasn't an easy class to catch up in.

The Quidditch Captain's eyes widened.

"You're taking Honour's _Potions_?"

"Yeah...yeah...actually most of my classes are Honour's Classes this year."

"Try, all." Travis grunted without looking up.

Barry looked disbelieving.

"You're in all Honour's Classes." he said staring at her

"I'm in all Honour's Classes." she said bluntly

He raised his eyebrows.

"That had better not get in way of your training."

She stiffened.

"It won't."

"Well- good. Okay so you said Harry and Ron-"

"What about Harry and Ron?" Ginny heard her brother's voice comment out of no where.

Barry looked up.

"Well, I assume you're Harry." he said as his eyes groped Harry's hairline "Ron, then?"

"That's my name." Ron said simply "What's it to you?"

"Oh-well-I'm Barry."

"Oh." said Ron understandingly "What's up?"

"Get your robes on and get onto the pitch. Practice. Now."

Ron and Harry both grinned. Ginny knew they had nothing against missing an hour or so of class.

"Whatever you say, _coach._" Ron said almost giddily.

The two of them headed back up the stairs immediately as Barry glanced yet again at his list.

"Okay. Well then, I'll go down the Great Hall and try to find...Dustin and Danny. Ginny you find Katie." he said nodding matter-of-factly, not offering good byes before he smoothly exited through the portrait hole.

"I guess we'll catch up with you at lunch then Gin." J.J shrugged scribbling something on a piece of parchment. Ginny bit her bottom lip.

"Actually, I think I might skip lunch to catch up with the Potions I'll be missing. But I'll catch up with you guys sometime...hey...have any of you seen Kyler?"

"She hasn't come down yet." Laura shrugged.

"She left the room before you did." Ginny pointed out

She frowned

"Hey yeah...that's weird..."

"We didn't see her come down and we've been up a while." J.J shrugged

Ginny wrinkled her nose

"Well...she'll turn up I guess. I've gotta go." she said turning to head up the stairs.

J.J scribbled something else on the parchment...

"You know I feel like we haven't seen Ginny or Kyler in ages." Laura blurted out

Travis just shrugged

"We see them everyday, Ginny's just busy with her classes and stuff...and Kyler...I dunno...it's still the first few weeks of school, once we all get settled in...it'll be fine."

"I guess..." she frowned "Hey I'm...I think I'm gonna head down to the Great Hall now, I'll meet you guys there."

"Okay." J.J grunted as Laura walked toward the portrait hole...

_Promise me forever...we will never get better at growing up and learning to lie..._

"_Daddy!"_

_Laura hopped off the big yellow school bus and jumped into her father's arms. He had been waiting for her..._

"_Hey baby, how was school?"_

_I just can't make that promise. I promise you I can't._

_Laura wiggled her nose thinking about her answer._

"_Normal!" she giggled finally_

"_Normal!" he gasped in mock surprise "That's no good!"_

_Laura giggled some more, still in her father's arms._

"_You can't think of _anything_ interesting that happened?"_

_She shook her head wildly._

"_Nope! Just normal daddy!" she squealed squirming around_

"_Well, tell you what. Daddy has a meeting tonight, so it's your job to think of something interesting that happened. And then you can tell daddy when he gets home."_

_Laura grinned, revealing a mouth missing both front teeth_

"_Okay!" she exclaimed "Hey, daddy I have another loose tooth!" she wiggled in his arms_

"_You do!" he gasped "Well you can show me later baby, where's your brother?"_

"_I'm right here!" J.J yelled hopping off the bus after Laura._

"_Hey buddy, what took you long?" he asked his son as Laura hopped out of his arms. _

"_I had to give Cody his birthday present before I got off the bus!" J.J told them energetically "I think he really, _really_ loved it Dad!"_

"_Well _that's_ a relief!" he answered, "But you know what I really, really love?"_

"_What, daddy!" Laura cried_

"_YOU TWO!" he yelled swinging her over his shoulder and spinning around as both twins shrieked with laughter..._

"Hey!"

Laura looked around. A girl about her height, but clearly quite a bit younger was standing timidly in front of her blocking her path.

"Erm...hi." Laura muttered

The girl seemed to be struggling to find words

"Um...my...my friend told me that you're...is...is your dad really Joel Porter?" she blurted out "Was he really the drummer in UnderCompany?"

Laura paused...

"Yeah...yeah he was...I guess you're muggle born then?"

The little girl nodded vigorously

"My name's Amanda." she said quickly...she was twisting a piece of parchment in her hands.

"D'you...d'you think...I mean...maybe could you get your dad to write me an autograph!" she asked hopefully raising the parchment up, in her little shaking hand.

Laura gave a small smile.

"Sure...next time I owl him...I'll...nice to meet you Amanda."

Amanda blushed.

"What's your name?"

"I'm Laura." she said lightly

"Okay, thanks so much Laura." she said blushing furiously before she scurried off in the opposite direction.

Still Laura smiled. When the girl was far enough away she pulled out her quill and bent down resting the parchment on her knee. She scrolled the words _Joel Porter _in messy rock star like writing, and made a mental note to hunt the kid down again in a few days...

"_Let me see the note dad left." J.J said exasperated, pulling it from his sister's hands._

"_I can read!" Laura yelled at him, "I wanna read it!"_

"_No!" he yelled yanking it from her and holding it high in the air where Laura couldn't reach it. "It says...he has a meeting...we can eat whatever we want for dinner...he wants us to clean the downstairs up...and mail some letters for him...and if we have time...to go buy him some smokes from the News Stand..."_

_Laura pouted._

"_It doesn't say anything about when we next get to see mommy?" she whined_

"_No, I just told you what it said."_

"_I miss mommy." _

"_No, you don't you just miss Bear." he said referring to their mother's old sheep dog_

"_No! I miss _mommy_!" she insisted stamping her foot._

_Her brother raised his eyebrows._

"_So do I." he agreed "But we have to do these chores for dad and we need to make food."_

_Laura wrinkled her face_

"_I don't know how to make food."_

"_Well I do."_

"_Call mommy, she'll come make us food."_

"_No she won't!" he snapped "You still don't get it! Mom and dad don't like each other!"_

_Laura pouted again dangling her feet as she sat on the counter._

"_Why not?"_

"_I don't know...they just don't." he concluded. "Go clean the living room, I'm making food."_

"_Fine..." Laura grumbled stalking away..._

"Hey Laura," Caroline appeared as Laura neared the Gryffindor table

"Yeah?"

"You haven't seen Kyler have you?" she asked

Laura made a face

"No, I thought she was with you."

"No...I haven't seen her...if you see her let me know! And if you see your brother let me know too!" she called running out of the Hall

"Will do!" Laura lied loudly... "Bitch..." she added after Caroline was out of sight.

"_What is that!" Laura turned around on the couch to face the window. "It's daddy! Daddy's home!"_

_J.J grabbed his sister's wrist just as she was about to run and greet him._

"_Don't show him your burn you got cooking...it'll make him mad." he said wisely._

_Laura looked down at her left arm. Blood was soaking through her shirt...her face was still stained with tears...she carefully hid her arm behind her back as she ran to greet her father._

"_Daddy! Daddy guess what!" she yelled running up to him as he appeared in the living room._

"_What!" he barked at her cruelly. His hair was bedraggled, he smelled of beer and he didn't seem very steady as he stood._

"_I thought of something not normal!" Laura exclaimed "A girl on he bus puked today daddy, it was _gross_!" she giggled_

"_So the fuck what!" he yelled at her "In the high schools the damn kids puke on the bus every fucking day!"_

"_They...they do?" Laura asked timidly_

"_Of course they do, they snort too much god damn heroine not to!"_

_Slowly Laura edged away, not speaking..._

"_I thought I told you stupid kids to clean this house!"_

"_We did clean it dad..." J.J mumbled_

"_Like hell you did! What the fuck is this?" his eyes flashed to the mantel and got caught on an old picture he had always kept there of him and J.J and Laura's mother grinning with their arms around each other. He turned viciously to his only son and daughter. "DON'T YOU FUCKING GET IT? WHY THE FUCK IS THAT UP THERE? IT'S _OVER _BECAUSE YOUR MOM IS A GOD DAMN WHORE WHO HAD TO KEEP ALL OF HER SECRETS FROM ME UNTIL SHE'D ALREADY PISSED OUT TWO STUPID KIDS AND IT WAS TOO LATE TO CUT ALL TIES WITH HER ANYWAYS! SO WHY THE FUCK WOULD I WANT THIS UP HERE!" he bellowed_

_Tears were rolling down Laura's cheeks. She had seen her daddy like this before...and she knew there was no where to run..._

"_Dad, you didn't tell us you wanted us to take the picture down!" J.J pleaded_

"_Like hell I didn't you stupid brat!" he cried "Well I'll do it myself then, I _always_ fucking do everything myself!" _

_He violently yanked the picture off the mantle and walked angrily to his daughter. With a heart stopping crash he broke the picture over Laura's head. She gave a strangled whimper and put her hands to her face...she didn't want J.J to see her bleed...it would just scare him._

_Not through yet, as his son cried for him to stop he lifted the poor girl up by her hair and swung her into a wall, letting go as she fell to the floor. And then he beat her. And he wouldn't stop._

"_THIS-IS-THE-HELL-YOU-PUT-ME-THROUGH-EVERY-FUCKING-DAY-OF-MY-LIFE!" he bellowed._

_And when his daughter could not even move he dropped his coat, baggies of white power falling from the inside pockets. He moved on, to his only son. Picking him up by his throat he smashed the six year old against the wall as he flailed and begged for mercy._

"_MY BAND IS GOING TO HELL!" he screamed punching him round the face, "IT'S BECAUSE I HAVE NO TIME- BECAUSE OF YOU- LITTLE- BASTARDS! AND I CAN'T PAY MY BILLS!" he pushed J.J out of the way and he banged against the table shattering a lamp. "I CAN'T PAY FOR MY GOD DAMN COCAINE!" he bellowed whacking him again round the face "JUST-PUT-A-GUN-IN-MY-FUCKING-MOUTH! YOU'VE TAKEN MY LIFE ALREADY YOU WORTHLESS LITTLE ASS!"_

_But he didn't know his daughter was still awake...sobbing silently in her corner, hidden by the couch...listening to her daddy's torturous words...not that he really cared at all..._

Laura dished scrambled eggs onto her plate and loaded her pancakes with syrup, as J.J and Travis approached with Leon somewhere behind him and Adam and Davinee a ways back arguing over Transfiguration homework.

"What's for eating?" J.J grunted taking his seat

"Here..." Laura passed him the dish "Have some eggs."...

"_I made scrambled eggs..."_

_Laura blinked her eyes open. She was lying on cold floor, and as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes she could see her fingers were stained with blood...the words were echoing in the girl's aching head. "Scrambled eggs...eggs...eggs..."_

_She looked up. She was face to face with her father. He had bags under his bloodshot eyes and his hair was uncombed. But he was smiling. _

_Without thinking Laura edged away a bit. She could see her brother sitting solemnly at the small kitchen table, not far away. He wasn't looking at her..._

"_You dozed off in here last night bugaboo." her father smiled playfully, "What say we get some food in your tummy?"_

_Laura said nothing. She wanted more than anything for her brother to look at her._

"_Awwww, you're not mad at daddy are you?" he asked in response to her silence "You can't stay mad at daddy. He was a little bit mean last night right?"_

_Laura nodded slowly_

"_Well you're not gonna tell anyone are you? Because you know it's not daddy's fault. He knows he had a little too much to drink. He didn't know what he was doing. So you have to forgive him."_

_Laura didn't blink. J.J was looking up at her from his cereal, with a serious look in his black eyes. His face was bruised._

"_So you're not mad at daddy are you?" he prodded again "Because if you were, that would make you not a very nice person. You wouldn't be my little girl anymore."_

_He stared back down to his cereal and slowly began to eat._

"_So why don't you make daddy a promise, you won't tell anyone what happened last night. You're good at these promises bugaboo. We've done this before remember? Just promise daddy and we'll get you some eggs."_

_Laura hesitated slightly. But then she slowly raised her chin up and nodded her head. A grin spread across her father's face._

"_Good girl."_

"So, we goin' out there then?" Ron asked rubbing his hands together with anticipation.

"Pep talk first." Barry said smiling at how excited he was. "Now I know, it's my first year on the team...hell it's more or less my first year at the school. And it must be irregular as hell to have a captain you've never met._" _he paused, looking around. "The one thing I can promise you is I don't suck." he told them bluntly "And from what I've heard, none of you do either. Just gimme a minute to see if I have the right information...Harry you've been on the team for...five years?"

Harry nodded

"Okay...Ginny and Ron, it's the second year for both of you...but it says here Ginny was an alternate seeker for two years before that."

Ginny nodded too.

"Yeah that's right." she said.

"But you play chaser now?

"Yeah."

"Okay...Katie...seventh year?"

"Yup." she smiled.

"And Dustin and Danny you're both first timers just like me right?"

They both nodded though neither of them seemed too happy about it.

"Okay." the captain clapped his hands together "I'm not gonna skirt around this. I've heard this team is magnificent as hell and has been robbed pretty much every year. And I didn't hear this all from Gryffindors either. I think highly of you."

Ron's ears went pink and he puffed out his chest.

"But we can't afford to be robbed this year." he frowned "I don't care if we deserve to win and we don't. I care if we win. And it isn't gonna be easy."

He raised his eyebrows scanning every player.

"I put this to every last one of you. I know you're all great athletes to be where you're sitting. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't be damn well willing to work. I'll say it again. This is _not going to be easy."_

No one was smiling anymore.

"We train three nights a week and five mornings a week. I've booked the pitch and that was all the time I could get for certain. But if any other time frees up I expect you all to be there to work. Other than that? I know we're all teenagers and I don't wanna deprive you of your funbut no drinking, no smoking and no staying up past 4:00 AM wandering the school in an invisibility cloak."

Ginny watched Harry and Ron exchange glances when the captain raised his eyebrows at them

"So you've uh...spoken to Dumbledore then." Ron said lamely

"Yeah, when I first transferred and Angelina gave me this job I talked to Dumbledore about the team." he answered.

"Hey." Dustin Redpath asked suddenly "If I can ask-...where did you transfer from?"

There was a silent pause as Barry surveyedRedpath through his monster blue eyes.

"Not from Durmstrang...if that's what you mean."

Redpath fell silent

"Other than that...I don't mean to insult anyone but I need you all to really be watching what you're eating. Quidditch players should be light and speedy. Danny and I get off a little bit on a bit of a technicality, since we're beaters and we're gonna need our weight the be clubbing bludgers..." he smiled "But the rest of you, and even us too. _Seriously_. We're playing to win this year. I want you all to try and cut back on the food you're taking in. And _know_ what you're _eating_ too. Oh and Katie, Dustin and Ginny?"

There was another pause

"Yeah?" Redpath grunted

"No meat." he told them "I want our chasers to be our strong point.No more than 1000 calories a day for the girls. 1500 for Harry, Ron and Dustin. and 1800 for Danny and I. I don't want you to be tired all the time so don't go overboard..." he stopped talking for a moment and considered what he said "Scratch that. You know what? Go overboard. Do all you fucking can to make this team good. As long as you're scoring goals, and catching snitches and beating bludgers and protecting the goal posts...I don't care. Stop eating if you have to. Do a thousand fucking sit ups a day if you have to. As long as you're not falling off your broom I don't give a damn."

He looked around the room.

"Everyone got that?"

There were some random, weak nods and a couple shoulder shrugs, but no one seemed too enthusiastic.

"THEN GET OUT THERE!" he bellowed in a pumped voice, gesturing to the pitchwith his left hand.

The team ran out after him. They were all excited about the possible outcome of the season, but no one was too excited about the sacrificesthey were going to have to be making. They all mounted their brooms and Ginny took a deep breath as she felt the cold air on her face.

The practice seemed to go on forever. No one was really on top of their game, what with it being their first time back but of course Barry was not at all forgiving.

"_HARRY WHAT THE HELL!" _he bellowed full of rage as the wind began to pick up again, _"THE SNITCH WAS RIGHT UNDER YOUR NOSE!" _

"_I'M FUCKING SORRY, ALL RIGHT?" _Harry yelled back frustrated. Harry was playing well least of all, even for him...he seemed strangely distracted...

"_Mama look what I drew!" Ginny cried happily running up to her mother. But she seemed strangely distracted... She was peering through curtains of the window near the front door. "Mamaaaa!" Ginny whined again. Her mother turned to face her._

"_Ginny dear...is that really what you're wearing?" her mom asked glancing at her daughter's overall's stained with blue paint, that was plastered all over her face as well. She was smiling beneath tangled hair._

"_What mommy? What I'm wearing for what? Oh! Look what I drew! It's a puppy dog, mama see?"_

_Her mother stared her down before making a decision._

"_Honey, come here." she said gently, taking her daughter's hand. She led her up the staircase to their only bathroom and opened up a drawer. Ginny wrinkled her nose_

"_See this baby? It's called lipstick okay? Now mommy's gonna put some on you."_

_Ginny shook her head_

"_Noooo, I don't want to." she frowned as her mother opened up the tube of dark red lipstick._

"_Ginny I really need you to cooperate." she said turning red with frustration. She seized her daughter's face and applied the lipstick. Ginny pouted with confusion_

"_I don't like it, why do I have to wear it mama?" _

"_And this is called eyeliner" she continued without answering. "It goes on like this..."_

At long last Barry swooped low and touched down onto the ground.

"OKAY, OKAY!" he called to his teammates "THAT'S IT FOR TODAY!"

Everyone was immensely relieved at the end of practice.The entire team, minus Barry stumbled, grumbling into the change rooms. Ginny was last to touch down on the groundonly to see that Barry was waiting for her.

"Good work today Weasley." he nodded. Coming from him Ginny took this as a huge compliment.

"Hey thanks." she replied breathlessly. He wasn't heading in. "You wanna talk to me or something?"

Barry considered his words

"Harry...he...he seemed kind of off today didn't he?"

Ginny nodded a little hoping that this chat wouldn't somehow get back to Harry.

"I guess maybe a bit..." she muttered

"Does he...does he always play like that?"

Ginny said nothing. What the fuck was this kid playing at?

"Because...well you played seeker last year right?"

"Yes..." she said suspiciously.

"Well...I mean...if he keeps playing like that...I mean we can't really afford that can we?"

Still she said nothing

"Just...just keep open...in case the position needs to get dropped in your lap...don't be surprised okay? Really be watching yourself...the team is riding on the seeker's ass...and that could be you."

Ginny was absolutely speechless. Did he seriously want Harry off the team?

_Mrs. Weasley glanced through the curtains one more time._

"_Mama, what's going on?" Ginny moaned "I don't like this."_

"_Shh, just be quiet baby...I think...yes I think he's here."_

_Ginny frowned. Something wasn't right at all. Her mother had forced her into a bra, though she had absolutely nothing to hold it up at barely seven years old. And into a short leather skirt, and a white belly top, she had bought for Ginny just yesterday. She had told Ginny to take her underwear off...and the make up. Ginny didn't like it at all. The mascara and eyeliner was getting into her eyes. She didn't understand what was going on. Finally there was a knock on the door. Mrs. Weasley hurriedly turned the knob._

"_There you are." she said in a hushed voice to a middle aged man with dark eyes. "You're late."_

"_Where is she?" the man asked looking around_

"_Show me the money first. You agreed." Mrs. Weasley told him._

_The man pulled a large bag from his pocket and emptied it on the floor. With a loud crash, coins and coins of gold and silver flew out. Ginny had never in her life seen that many galleons..._

"_Now where is she?" he asked impatiently...Ginny did not like this man._

"_Oh, she's over here hiding.." Mrs. Weasley chuckled "Gin, baby...come out now okay? Come and greet our guest."_

_Slowly Ginny edged into view...a psychotic grin appeared on the man's face as he looked her up and down._

"_Perfect." he muttered licking his lips. "I love little red heads. I can never find a little red head quite this pretty."_

_Ginny bit her bottom lip. She didn't dare speak._

"_Remember the deal, you only get half an hour, if you want longer you pay more." Mrs. Weasley told him in a business like manner._

"_Half an hour will do just fine ma'am." he replied not taking his eyes off Ginny. _

"_Ginny darling." said Mrs Weasley in a pained voice. "I need you to go with this man now...you do whatever he tells you. Whatever he says. You do it. And I think we just might be able to pay the rent." her eyes were welling up with tears._

"_Mommy, I don't want to." she whimpered as the man neared her_

"_Ginny go."_

_He took her hand and pulled her along, up the stairs into her room, all the while disregarding her screams..._

Ginny made her way back up to her dorm. The was still about twenty minutes of class left, but going would be pointless. She gathered up her books for her next subject and washed her face, feeling a little odd. On some level she was honoured to have Barry think she was good enough to replace Harry. On another she just knew it simply wasn't true, and felt helpless at the prospect of what to do if she ever was asked to play seeker. Quidditch practice seemed to have helped her a little bit she noticed glancing once again at her figure in the mirror. She still had a long way to come though. Barry's speech had opened her eyes to how little she was trying.

She walked back down to the empty common room. Everyone was in class...she didn't have to leave and face everyone, and face class for another few minutes. She took a seat on the couch by the fire and began to skim through her Honour's Herbology book until something caught her eye...

The garbage had not yet been emptied since they had come back to Hogwarts. There wasn't much in it. People never ate in the common room...

Ginny remembered that first night back, and the occurrences. She couldn't tear her eyes from the garbage can. The Vietax was still sitting in there.Travis had thrown it out...Ginny was surprised Kyler had not picked it back up. And she was still generally oblivious as to why Kyler had put it in her backpack in the first place. Perhaps it _had_ been to warn her of the weight she was gaining...and with the Quidditch World Cup at stake...

"_Starve yourself if you have to...as long as you're not falling off your broom I don't care."_

She got up and walked over to the garbage can.

"_The team is riding on the seeker's ass and that could be you."..._

Without anymore thought Ginny pocketed the Vietax, gathered her books and left the room.

"_J.J!" Laura gasped when her big brother entered her room. "I...I thought you were downstairs." she said shakily as a tear rolled down her cheek. She could still her father raging and screaming from the first floor._

"_I thought _you_ were downstairs." he said as his terrified expression faded from his face._

"_N-no." _

_She got up off her bed as her brother approached her and pulled her into a hug._

"_D'you think...d'you think he's just so screwed off the beer he...thinks we're down there or something?" Laura asked him, in a horrified voice_

"_Maybe...maybe he's on the phone..." J.J suggested._

"_GOD FUCKING DAMN IT MELINDA!"_

_Both twins paused to listen to their father._

"_Melinda?" Laura repeated in a small voice._

_J.J shook his head._

"_No, it can't be."_

"_Mom, must be here." Laura concluded_

"_Mom is _not_ here." he insisted, trying to convince not only his sister, but himself. "Look La...I'm gonna go down."_

"_Jay no don't!" she cried, breaking into tears again. "Don't fucking go down there!"_

_Her father had not taught her many things, but how to curse when you're not even eleven was definitely something she had picked up from him._

"_It'll be okay." he promised her, though he looked nervous. "Just stay in here...and no matter what you hear...don't come out. I promise, I'll come back and get you when it's okay to come out okay? I _promise_."_

"_Y-you...you really promise? You _swear_?"_

"_I _swear_ I will...okay...I'm going down._

_Laura was shaking her head and sobbing dryly._

"_No." she mouthed, though no sound issued from her mouth. "_No_."_

_But J.J left the room._

"You know I fucking hate that class." Travis grumbled as they exited Transfiguration

Laura giggled

"You just hate it because you couldn't transfigure your fucking pig you ass." she snorted

"Not _true_." he insisted. " I could transfigure it."

"Trav, you were supposed to turn it into a box." she reminded him._ "_Yours just ran around the room until it almost broke Haley's ankle."

"At least I didn't _name_ mine like you named _your_ stupid pig.

"_Don't_ you call Shiggy_ stupid!_" she snapped

"Shiggy?" J.J questioned

She glared at him.

"Yes Shiggy moron. Shiggy the Piggy._"_

J.J shook his head.

"Whatever, freak of nature. Hey, has mom mailed you back yet?"

Laura shook her head

"Not yet, nope."

"Man...we haven't heard from her in ages."

"_Mom! We haven't heard from you in ages." J.J cried astonished when he reached the bottom of the staircase. His mother was standing in front of the door unharmed, but with a foul look on her face. It disappeared at the sight of her son._

"_GO TO YOUR FUCKING ROOM JASON!"_

"_My name is _J.J._" he told his father trembling._

"_LIKE HELL IT IS!"_

"_J.J." his mother said "Baby, where's your sister?" _

_She looked frightened_

"_She's upstairs." he said in a small voice._

"_GET THE HELL OUT OF MY HOUSE MELINDA." he bellowed. He lunged forward and punched her in the face. She did not wince._

_J.J took a step backwards._

"_WE HAD A FUCKING DEAL JOEL, DON'T MAKE ME GET THE COURT ORDER!" she bellowed, as blood spouted from her nose, "IT'S TIME FOR THIS HELL TO END FOR OUR CHILDREN. THEY'RE ELEVEN YEARS OLD. AND I'LL NEVER FORGIVE MYSELF FOR AGREEING TO LEAVE THEM WITH YOU THAT LONG. IT'S TIME FOR THEM TO START A NEW LIFE! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU GOING TO TELL THEM WHEN THEY GET THEIR LETTERS ANYWAYS? ARE YOU GONNA EVEN LET THEM GO! THEY DON'T DESERVE TO BE HELD BACK THEY FUCKING DESERVE TO GO!"_

"_I TOLD YOU TO FUCKING GET OUT OF MY HOUSE, WITCH!" he screamed, his eyeballs jumping from their sockets._

"_J.J, go wait in the car." his mother told him. "Lock the doors-"_

"_YOU'RE NOT GONNA FUCKING TAKE THEM AWAY FROM ME._

"_Whatever happens-"_

"_JESUS MELINDA!"_

"_Don't come out."_

_His father swung at her again, catching her face a second time._

"_Mom, what about Laura?"_

"_J.J-"_

_His father raged, swinging off his belt_

"_Go."_

"_YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST COME HERE AFTER ELEVEN YEARS-"_

"_Just _go_, baby."_

_J.J wasted no more time in obeying. He lunged for the doorknob and ran outside, where he saw the comfort of his mother's car. Every other month she would come and take them away in that car...he loved seeing that car._

"There she is." Laura exclaimed as Ginny approached the dinner table. "Hello lovely."

Ginny slumped into her chair. She had taken a Vietax and a half since that morning, and skipped both breakfast and lunch. She thought she was doing pretty well.

"Is she living?" Travis asked as Ginny buried her face in her hands.

"She's tired." she answered him, peeking out.

"Eat, fool." J.J said jokingly, as he dished mashed potatoes onto her plate "Before you pass out."

She grinned at him and agreeingly and dished herself vegetables. There could hardly be any harm to come out of eating one meal.

"Laura, what's up?" she asked wrinkling up her nose "You look sort of...glazed."

Her head snapped up.

"It's...it's nothing." she disregarded, "So...no Kyler again. Or Adam. Or...Caroline." she raised her eyebrows at her brother who said nothing and looked away.

"Hey yeah where is Adam?" Ginny asked, noticing his absence.

Travis just snorted and pointed to a corner of the Hall where Adam had his hands all over the back of a lanky brunette girl, as they made out animatedly.

"Oh." Ginny said shortly, "Who is she?"

J.J shrugged

"Who knows, he missed lunch too, and third period. My guess is whoever she is, she's the cause."

Ginny glanced at the skinny, tall, shiny haired girl snogging furiously and chewed her food slightly slower

Quite suddenly the evening post arrived and everyone at the table craned their necks upwards. Before Laura had even swallowed her mouthful of beans a large brown owl gave a high pitched squawk and collided with her plate.

"Gragh!" she cried, toppling half over backwards before Travis caught her with one arm. The owl finally dropped the letter onto her plate and flew away. Laura gave a snort. "Hey thanks, buddy." she said to Travis patting him on the back as she tore open her letter and let her eyes fly across it.

"Whose it from?" Ginny asked her lightly.

But the grin was slowly fading off Laura's face.

"Um...um..." she mumbled running a nervous hand through her hair

"Laura?" Leon asked questioningly

"Um...I've...I've gotta go up to the common room and do some work." she said hurriedly as she crumpled the letter into a ball and shoved it into her pocket

"We didn't get any homework today." Travis pointed out

"Yeah I'll do it, see you in a bit." she said absentmindedly hurrying off

J.J rolled his eyes

"All right then."

_Ginny could hear the alarm clock buzzing...but didn't want to get up. It was Saturday. He came on Saturdays. She hated Saturdays. Her mother walked into her room without knocking, and began beating dust out of the curtains before she pulled them open and the sunlight beamed in._

"_Up, Ginny dear." she said without a trace of guilt in her voice. "It's Saturday. We have...things to do."_

_Ginny sat up in bed._

"_Mom...I don't want to do this." she felt tears welling up in her eyes. But she did this every Saturday. It never made a difference._

"_Ginny-..." she started "We've-we've talked about this you know. We all have to make sacrifices for this family." her voice trailed off into nothingness. "Frank has asked for a bit longer today..."_

"_I won't mom." she said her voice shaking. "I hate this. I hate it all. I hate this house. Why couldn't I have gone to Hogwarts with Ron? Away from here?"_

"_When you're of age, which is soon enough so stop badgering me and get up." her mother snapped not looking at her._

_But Ginny was staring intently at the nail scissors on her bedside table. She had the strong urge to grab them._

"_I know you don't like this Ginny, but would you rather be living on the streets? Would you rather be stealing the bread you ate and sleeping in the cold and wet?"_

"_Yes..." Ginny said in a hollow voice, as she felt her fingers reach for the shiny scissors..._

"_Oh, you say that now in your silly preteen angst and rebellion. You'll see one day I was doing you a favour. I was keeping this family strong and you know Ginny-"_

"_You know what mom?" she interrupted, her voice quavering uncontrollably "Your drunken financial provider can't rape me if I bleed to death."_

_And she plunged the scissors into her wrists, only ripping them out the stab again, and again. It was hard to feel the pain. It was hard to care about her mother's screams when she knew what she was preventing...at least for one more week..._

The portrait hole swung open late that evening. The bright moon was shining in through the tall glass windows of Gryffindor tower, while J.J and Travis looked up from their game of Exploding Snap.

"Hey La." Travis grunted

"Hey..." she replied with an odd expression on her face

"What's up?" J.J asked questioningly, placing another card on the tower.

"Um...I...I got an owl from mom Jay." she said slowly.

"'Bout time." he said in an oblivious manner, not even looking at her

"She's with dad." Laura told him strangely.

J.J's head snapped up and he went red

"What did you just say!" he croaked

"She's _with dad_." she repeated shakily

"God damn it!" he roared "Why! What's going on? Is she okay!"

"She's FINE!" Laura spoke almost defensively. "Why wouldn't she be?"

J.J gave a sour laugh.

"Oh _don't _even, Laura _Emily_."

"Hey! Fuck you!" she snapped

"Well you know good and well why she wouldn't be!"

"I do not!"

"How long!" he questioned her loudly

"A while now she said!" Laura yelled back "That's where she's been taking off to all summer!

Travis sat unnaturally still staring at the two twins with concern.

"She said they're having a really good time!" Laura protested "And it kinda sounds like maybe they might be thinking of getting back-" her voice was trailing off with nervousness but J.J interrupted her regardless.

"Oh _HELL_ no this is _NOT_ going to happen, I'll make sure of it!"

"Yeah?" she screamed, angry tears welling up in her eyes "Well why the hell not? What the fuck would be so horrible about us having a father for once in five years!"

"He's a BURNOUT Laura, he's an ass, a loser, he's a crack addict, he's an abusive-"

"SHUT UP, HE IS NOT!"

"Why the fuck do you think he LEFT us when we were fucking two months old and only took us back when the JUDGE said that-"

"He only LEFT in the first place because mom never told him she was a witch and it damn well served her right for lying!"

"Don't you DARE say that about mom and I can't believe you buy that shit Laura, you're smarter than that!"

"He gave you your guitar!" she threw at him viscously

"Yeah so!"

"You play it every god damn fucking day!"

"SO!"

She paused.

"Don't act like he isn't a part of you Jay." she whispered tears still strangling her words.

"Oh fuck that!" he bellowed "He's not me and I'm not him and I never will be, I am NOT going to turn out like him!"

"What the fuck would be so horrible about turning out like him, he's a good man!" she practically begged

J.J stared intently into her blindingly green eyes that screamed with pain

"Don't you even remember what he did to you?" he asked coldly

Laura looked as though she's been punched in the face.

"No Jay." she whimpered slowly and sarcastically, "I've forgotten. But thank you for THAT because I _SO_ love being reminded of it."

J.J didn't blink.

"So why do you want him back?"

"People change." she insisted, tears rolling down her face

"No. They don't." he shook his head

"Well I sure as hell hope you do!" she screamed

And with it, Laura tore up the girls staircase in pieces, to her dormitory.

"Well..." Travis ventured cautiously "That was new."

J.J shook his head.

"I swear man...I love Laura...I love her too much...but sometimes...sometimes..._GOD_, man how could she be acting this stupid about him?"

"She seemed really upset." Travis answered, patiently hiding his confusion.

"Yeah, well it's not like she doesn't have a good reason to be, but if she keeps acting this stupid about the...the...situation-"

"What is the situation?" Travis asked slowly

J.J smiled

"It would take a while to explain."

_He saw the door handle twist and heard screams and yells from inside. He ran from the porch to the car, as he saw his mother's hand slam the front door shut trying to buy time. He jumped in the front seat, the closest door to him and locked it. The keys were still in the ignition. It was clear his mother had been prepared to run._

_And he sat there for several minutes, simply listening to the horrible, heart stopping and all too familiar sounds from inside. He could hear Laura screaming from the second floor... In too much shock to turn the radio up...or even close his dark eyes._

_After what seemed like an eternity, the front door slammed open. J.J's father had Laura swung over his shoulder. She was bleeding and sobbing. His mother was following closely, screaming and begging..._

_J.J had no idea what to do. He was approaching...the doors were locked, but it didn't matter in the least. Laura fell to the driveway as her father punched through the glass in the front seat window. It shattered, and he seized his son's neck with his one hand, bleeding furiously full of minuscule shards of glass. Both of them yelled in pain, as Melinda simply sobbed, trying to help her daughter who had not gotten up from the driveway._

"_JOEL!" she screamed "DON'T FUCKING DO THIS!"_

_Clueless of what else to do J.J let his right foot fall onto the gas pedal. The car engine roared as it sped forward, and he felt his father's hands leave him only seconds before a sound too loud to describe stopped his heart as he lunged forward, his head smashing onto the steering wheel. He had crashed into the garage. _

_Melinda was shrieking now, as she ran forward with Laura in her arms. She unlocked the front door through the broken window and got in, quickly as J.J scrambled, hurt, into the passenger seat. Joel was right behind them. Laura fell out of her arms and on top of her brother, as Melinda forced the car into reverse and backed out of the driveway, faster than she knew she could have._

_Her old flame fell to his knees, in the driveway still screaming and clutching his wrist as she sped down to the highway, bawling and knowing they could never be far enough away._

_And Laura would never forget._

_And she thought she would never forgive him._

_But really there was someone else who she would never forgive for that day..._


	17. Confrontations And The Morning Of The Ba...

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Author's Note: Aren't Author's Notes fantastical? Yeah I just wanted to quickly give credit to The Julianna Theory For "Goodnight Starlight", about a line of it is played in this chapter and I changed a few of the words to make it more suit brother and sister and not lovvverrrss-s-s-s-. That's about it, enjoy the chapter.

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**Confrontations And The Morning Of The Ball**

"Hey..."

Laura looked up from her bed. Her eyes were bloodshot and her make-up was running.

"Well this is lovely ." she muttered rubbing at her eyes.

Travis smiled but didn't move yet.

"Jay told me some stuff..." he said choosing his words slowly and carefully

Laura's red eyes jumped towards Travis, scanning him with a suspicious glare.

"What kind of stuff?" she asked alarmed

He paused then walked over and sat down on the edge of her bed.

"Stuff I wish you'd told me before."

Laura gave an odd grunt and threw her hands into the air hysterical with sadness.

"Yeah, so now you're mad at me too? Ever give any thought that my _wonderful_ brother never said a word before tonight either? _God_, no of course you didn't but I really wish you would have because having one of my best friends mad at me over something that's _ancient_ history anyways-"

"Shhhh..." Travis cut her off, "I'm not mad at you, of course I'm not mad at you." he promised almost laughing, "I just...I wish you would've told me."

New tears were rolling silently down her cheeks.

"Oh, fuck La don't cry." he said in a pained voice, guiding her head to his shoulder with his left hand, "You wanna talk about it?"

She gave a shuddering breath and looked up

"Did he tell you like...everything?" she asked

Travis shrugged rubbing her shoulder comfortingly

"I guess so..." he muttered

"So then he told you about the last night?" she asked recklessly

"The last night?"

"Yeah the last night with my dad." she stammered quickly "The night when my mom came and-and- I still have scars from that night, wanna see?"

"Laura you don't have to-"

"You know, I sat in my room for twenty four minutes and fifty one seconds waiting for J.J to come back and get me-"

"La-"

"He told me no matter what happened to stay in my r-room and he would come back and g-get me and I would've, I would've stayed, I dunno if I've ever told him that-"

"Laura it's-"

"But he never came back, so I just sat there listening t-to my dad-my dad-"

She gave a violent shake

"And th-then he...he came up and he wanted me to leave but J.J s-said-he-h-he said to _wait_ s-s-so I wouldn't g-go with d-dad and h-he-h-he t-took me and-"

"_Laura!"_

"My mom_ wouldn't stop screaming!"_

"_LAURA!"_ he cried as she burst into tears "It's _okay."_

She buried her face into his shoulder as he rubbed her back gently "Breathe..." he muttered wide eyed "You're gonna give yourself a fucking asthma attack."

"I'm so sorry...I sh-should've told you." she whispered "It's just...embarrassing."

"God...don't apologize...you're not the one who should be embarrassed just because you dad was an asshole."

There was a pause

"I miss him Trav." Laura croaked finally, "He's my dad...I love him."

Travis just shook his head, lost for words. He couldn't stand to tell Laura off when she was in this state, but he did agree with J.J, and did not understand why Laura would ever want to see her father again.

"He used to...to talk to me like I was beautiful or something." she muttered in a hollow voice

"Well he better have." Travis said sharply.

She sniffed

"What?"

"You are beautiful..and he doesn't deserve you." he said in disgust

Laura looked up. Everything old and bloody from the past was unravelling into a mess she was wrapped around in. And even things so right and beautiful it was disgusting seemed wrong.

But it had been too long coming and it was too strong not to confuse her. It was too real not to hurt them...

As if on cue their lips met hungrily grasping each other as she felt his hands slide down her neck before they pulled apart, both in shock.

"Thank you." she answered finally in a rough whisper.

"I've gotta go down to dinner." he murmured after another pause

Quickly, Laura nodded.

"Yeah. Right. You-you should go. I'll come down later."

He nodded too, looking scattered.

"You sure you're okay?"

"I'm...I'm great." she smiled weakly and Travis headed to the door and exited.

He made his way back to the common room, which was deserted except for J.J, still sitting on the couch facing away from him. With a guitar in his hands. Travis didn't say a word yet.

"_Close your eyes, you're beautiful when you're sleeping."_ he sang strumming quietly _"Tonight may all your dreams come true...I know sometimes it's lonely when you're sleeping, and it's lonely for me too. It's all right. Just know that when you're sleeping, he's far away from you."_

Travis took a step forward listening intently

"_And what we've got here isn't special. And what we aren't is-"_

"What the fuck are you doing?" Travis piped up finally.

J.J didn't jump. He just stopped strumming abruptly and glanced behind him.

"Is she pissed at me?" he asked

"Well _yeah_, but what else is new? What the hell is that you're playing?"

J.J put down his guitar and shrugged

"I wrote it a while ago..."

"How long ago?"

He wrinkled his brow as though the conversation was paining him.

"I was...ten."

Travis stared at him blankly.

"You wrote _that_ when you were ten?" he asked

"Well actually probably more like...almost eleven. It wasn't long before we got our letters."

"I don't believe that. You were ten when you wrote that?"

"Well...I kind of touched it up a bit when I was a little older, but basically-yeah."

Travis looked as though he didn't know what to say

"Well...why? What is it?"

"I wrote it for Laura." J.J said bluntly "She used to be really bad at getting to sleep...she couldn't stop crying."

There was an awkward pause

"Well...why the fuck haven't you ever played it before?"

J.J put down his guitar.

"I just...don't really like remembering nights when I had to play it so my little sister wouldn't have to cry herself to sleep."

Travis walked up behind the couch and faced him.

"All right. You want me to say it? This is fucked up. A lot of the shit going on right now is _fucked_ up. But...you don't even _live_ in Ashmore anymore Jay. You live _here_. At Hogwarts. So I don't see how, whether or not you're going to see your _dad_ is an issue right _now_. I mean god knows, I'm not judging either of you. I don't know what kind of bullshit you went through. But I mean we've _gotta_ get past this man, _seriously_. The ball's tomorrow."

"So?"

"So I don't know! Everything's fucked up this year! That Migell kid is _seriously_ screwing with Ginny's head, and she's busy as hell as it is. I think she's keeping some shit from us and it's not good! Davinee and Leon are having issues with their parents and shit and I know that no one's supposed to anything but they are. I don't know _what_ is up with Kyler, but it's not like we see her that much anymore now that she hangs out with that slutty ex girlfriend of yours and I miss her and we all do-"

"Who?"

"_Kyler,_ not the slutty ex girlfriend! Although she _is_ hot...but we need to talk to Kyler because something is going on with her, we need to talk to Gin, we need to talk to Leon and Davinee and now you and Laura have gotta work things out and I think you should tell everyone else about this bullshit with your dad, because I'm sure they would just wanna help and also because, I do _not_ like being the only one who knows. And_ maybe_ Jay, the ball is a chance to work all this shit out and just get back to where we were last year, the whole Six Musketeers bullshit. But if you can't stop being pissed at your dad long enough to realize how much you love your sister...I mean _seriously_ it isn't about him. It's just about how he's fucked you up. Laura didn't do _anything_. You guys have gotta sit down and talk about some shit. We all do. And on another note...besides all this...the band is gonna be completely shot to hell if we all can't get over our baggage...or at least _write_ some decent music about it! All six of us need to shut up and look around at the other five for a minute so we can unfuck up everything that's gotten fucked up. But if you don't care then I'm out." he finished breathlessly

"Well. I only caught the end of that speech but it was quite moving."

Travis whipped around

"Kyler!" he exclaimed "Erm...how much did you catch?"

"The part whee you said fuck a lot." she shrugged "But...Jay I wanted to talk to you."

J.J looked confused

"What's up?" he asked her

She gave an oily smile.

"Would you go to the ball with me?"

Just then the portrait hole swung open and Ginny entered weighed down with textbooks and parchment. She collapsed in an armchair across from J.J and looked around.

"Is someone painting us or something?" she asked as no one was moving.

J.J was still staring at Kyler. He glanced over at Ginny for a moment and smiled.

"No...and Kyler...sure."

Ginny wrinkled her eyebrows

"And I'd love to know what's going on."

Kyler flashed her pale eyes over.

"Nothing...I'm going to dinner."

"Yeah, I'll come down with you." she shrugged standing up and following Kyler out the portrait hole.

J.J and Travis were left again once more. Travis cleared his throat awkwardly

"So you're uhh...going to the ball with Kyler then?" he asked

"Seems so doesn't it?" J.J asked cooly

"And the fact that you're madly in love with your sister's best friend?"

"Let's not get into that now shall we?"

_La mer..._

_Qu'on voit danser le long des golfes clairs_

_A des reflets d'argent_

_La mer_

_Des reflets changeants_

_Sous la pluie_

_La mer_

_Au ciel d'été confond_

_Ses blancs moutons..._

_La mer...-_

"Thanks for waiting." Kyler smiled stepping out of the bathroom stall "Man were you just sleeping or something?"

Ginny blinked

"No...just resting my eyes...I'm sort of tired." she said distractedly. It wasn't the first time she had heard that song in her head...she hated how familiar it was...

"_Ginny? Go play outside would you? Dinner's almost ready."_

_Ginny dropped her rag doll on the floor and scampered out the front door without another word. She was only five after all. Her mommy rarely let her play outside alone..._

_When she slammed the door shut the fresh air hit her hard in her little face and Ginny let out a giggle, staring around the emptiness surrounding her. She stepped off the old cement porch and glanced around one more time. Only it wasn't quite empty._

_Standing a far ways in front of her was an unfamiliar looking man and a girl about Ginny's age. There had never before been people other than the Weasleys at the Burrow. Never..._

"_Hello!" Ginny called out excitedly running in their direction._

_The little girl turned around and walked towards her. When they met she looked down at the ground as though unsure what to do._

"_I'm Ginny." she said sweetly_

"_Hi." the girl offered. "My name is..." she paused "Jane Macintosh."_

_The man still hadn't turned around._

"_That's a nice name." Ginny said cheerily "What're you doing here?"_

_The girl looked around_

"_I came here once before...and I liked it..."_

_Ginny touched a hand to her flaming, shiny hair almost as though self conscious. But she was much too young to be at all familiar with this particular emotion..._

"_You came here before?" she asked offhandedly no longer bouncing on the balls of her feet._

_The man in the dark coat was tapping his foot._

"_Yes...and today I thought I would bring a friend."_

"_This is private property you know!" Ginny exploded puffing out her chest, with much pride. "Why would you come here in the first place?"_

_The girl turned her nose up a bit, determined to keep her dignity._

"_I stumbled upon it. It's nothing special."_

"_You just said it was." Ginny spat. Normally she welcomed company regardless of their potential for being dangerous. She had never noticed things like this before._

_The girl paused._

"La mer...

Qu'on voit danser le long des golfes clairs..."

_Ginny looked up abruptly. Was the man singing?_

"_I brought this man I know...his name is...Frank."_

_Ginny was staring at the man's back. Why had he not turned around? Why was he here?_

"_How do you know him? Why would you bring him to my house?" she questioned at an alarming rate._

_The little girl with demonically adorable features seemed to cower._

"_I saw you here once before...Frank asked me to find him a girl with red hair...he likes girls with red hair." she told her accordingly_

_Ginny didn't blink, her hand still touching her obvious red hair._

"La mer...

Qu'on voit danser le long des golfes clairs

A des reflets d'argent

La mer

Des reflets changeants

Sous la pluie

La mer

Au ciel d'été confond

Ses blancs moutons...

La mer...-"

"_Where are your mommy and daddy?" she asked the girl quietly. There was something off about this whole situation._

"_I don't know...Frank is babysitting me...he's their friend."_

_How on earth could anybody be friends with a man who did not even turn around._

"_Go away." Ginny spat suddenly_

"_What? Why?"_

"_Go away now. This is _my_ house. This is _my_ special place. You can't come here. And neither can...that man." _

_Before the girl could respond in a clash of movement that seemed like so much as so little had happened outside the two of them in several minutes, the front door flew open and the tall man with the dark coat called Frank whirled around._

"_Ginny!" Mrs. Weasley shrieked. "Get over here RIGHT NOW!" There was flour smudged on her nose and she carried an empty frying pan as she stalked over to her sullen daughter. "What on Earth have I told you about talking to strangers?" she snapped_

"_Ma'am?" the man spoke for the first time. Mrs. Weasley's eyes snapped towards him but she continued addressing her daughter. _

"_I'm sorry mama." Ginny almost whispered_

"_Ma'am, if I could–it's truly not her fault-" he said earnestly_

"_Mama I'm so sorry. You're right." Ginny pleaded "Just...please make them go away." she said in a small voice_

"_Ginny go inside right now." she commanded and Ginny uncharacteristically obeyed only catching the tall man's next phrase_

"_Actually ma'am if you'll give me a minute of your time I do believe I have a tempting business proposition for you."_

_Ginny thought nothing of it and slammed the door._

"Gin?"

Ginny's eyes snapped open and glanced around. She had been leaning on a wall in a now near empty hallway with her eyes shut. J.J was standing next to her.

"Where's Kyler?" Ginny asked stupidly

J.J shrugged

"I thought you were with her...she must be at dinner."

Ginny said nothing, her eyes darting around the hallway

"Are you okay?" he said glancing concernedly into her eyes

"Uhhh yeah. Yeah." she answered lamely

"Erm...you coming to dinner?" he asked

Ginny was still hardly listening

"Um. Yes."

She wasn't moving. J.J steered her in the right direction and they started to walk.

"What's _up_ with you lately?" he asked her gently

"I'm fucking exhausted." she admitted

He didn't seem convinced.

"And that's all?"

"And that's all." she repeated as they entered the Hall and went to sit down. Kyler was indeed already there, as were Travis, Adam and Laura.

"Hey." Travis nodded to J.J with that sullen nod most guys used when addressing each other

"Hey man." he grunted back. "What're we talking about?"

"The Ball." Kyler smiled

"Oh. What about it?" he asked

Travis shrugged.

"Just figuring some stuff out. Ginny has to meet...that guy Migell... but that's not until an hour into the Ball...so we figured we'd all meet in the common room about 7:00 and head down together."

J.J wondered if this had anything to do with Travis's so called plan to figure most of everything out at the ball.

"That sounds gnarly." Laura said staring at her potatoes. "So what are you handsome boys wearing?" she grinned

All three of them shrugged and grunted like boys do. Laura sniggered.

"We all bought our dresses at Hogsmeade the last visit." she told them "Well, me, Gin and Dee did. Kyler I hope you have a dress. Unless you're wearing dress robes." she wrinkled her nose at the latter prospect

Kyler shook her head immediately

"No way in hell. I have a dress. I don't think anybody's gonna be wearing dress robes this year."

"Hey." J.J suddenly said to his sister. She looked up. "Are we good?"

Slowly Laura nodded. Adam wrinkled his eyebrows, but said nothing. And Kyler hadn't heard Ginny realized, as she raised her head and noticed in awe that Kyler was singing, in an almost silent voice. Ginny's eyes went unbelievably wide.

"_La mer..._

_Qu'on voit danser le long des golfes clairs_

_A des reflets d'argent_

_La mer_

_Des reflets changeants_

_Sous la pluie_

_La mer-"_

"What are you singing?" Ginny burst out. Her voice was shaking with emotion.

Kyler looked up.

"Huh?" she asked as though clueless. But Ginny was not going to take any bullshit.

"_What the hell are you singing!" _she repeated

Kyler stared at her not saying anything.

"_WHAT-"_ Ginny started

"It's just a song!" she exclaimed finally.

Ginny could feel tears in her eyes.

"How do you know it?"

Kyler's eyes were going red as well.

"A man I used to know...used to sing it..." she murmured softly

Ginny stared at her bursting with rage

"And...and that man...he never laid a finger on you did he?" she whispered

Adam, J.J, Travis and Laura were all looking extremely confused, from Kyler to Ginny to Ginny to Kyler...

Ever so slowly, Kyler stared into Ginny's eyes and shook her head no.

"Oh my god..." Ginny tried to say though no words came from her mouth. "Oh my _god_. You-you-you're...you're...that _girl_..."

Kyler was biting her bottom lip. She nodded.

It was all Ginny could do to keep herself from sobbing.

"What's going on?" Adam asked finally. Someone had to ask. But there was no way in hell Ginny was going to let this get any bigger. She forced a smile onto her face. She was good at that.

"Nothing..." she beamed

"Yeah," Kyler agreed, smiling too "Gin's just helping me out. I told you guys this right? I joined that club Flitwick started. That drama club. We might be putting on a play at the end of the year. Just did a little improv for practice."

Ginny stared at Kyler. She had never seen that girl lie so well. Especially for someone else's sake. But she didn't care. She still hated her. She wanted her dead. It was her who had brought him to the Burrow. It was all because of her.

But still Ginny laughed.

"Yeah. We're pretty good aren't we?"

Laura snorted, and J.J smiled giving her a look as though saying _"You didn't join that weird club did you Gin?"_

She shook her head no.

Laura giggled and poked at her ham with a spoon. The topic was changed at an alarming speed.

"So when's the first match of the season?" Adam asked. Kyler and Ginny were still locking eyes.

"Mmmm, it's...next week right? Slytherin vs Ravenclaw...I think. Right Gin?" Travis piped up

Ginny didn't hear him

"Gin?" J.J repeated

"I think I'm gonna puke." she said quickly, dashing from her seat and running out of the Hall.

It hadn't been a lie. For several days now Ginny had been growing accustomed to sticking her finger down her throat at just about dinner time. She hardly had control of it by now, she realized as she ran to the nearest bathroom. But it didn't matter. More than anything she had just needed to get out of the Hall. Ginny didn't know how she would ever speak to Kyler again. It had been her fault almost everything she had gone through. If Kyler had never came...if Kyler had never brought Frank. She sobbed, falling to her knees on the cold stone floor, thinking of what could have happened. Until other thoughts started to kick in. It wasn't totally Kyler's fault. Her mother did not have to agree with it. And her mother would not have agreed to it, unless it was to help the family. She was helping Ginny not be worthless, she realized jabbing her middle finger down her throat again. Her mother was the nicest person in the world for finding a role for Ginny in the world. Otherwise she was worthless. Worthless. She should thank her mother. She should thank Kyler. She wouldn't. She wouldn't ever speak of this again. It was simply more proof that she was good for nothing. But she should, she told herself shoving two Vietax down her throat, and unlocking the bathroom door. She should.

–_But everyone I know has got a reason to say...put the past away.--_

"Whoa..." Adam said simply as Ginny ran from the Hall "You think she'll be okay?"

"She's looked really sick for a while now." Travis said staring at the entrance to the Hall "I think it's Quidditch and all those classes and everything. It's too much even for her. She isn't eating."

"Maybe she won't be able to go to the Ball tomorrow." Kyler said failing to hide her happiness

"I'm worried about her." J.J said simply "Someone should go find her."

"I'll go brother dearest." Laura said standing up "I'm done anyways." she dropped her fork carelessly onto her plate with a clatter and hopped away from the table.

"Cool." J.J agreed. But when he turned back to the table he realized Kyler too had already left in a huff.

Laura didn't manage to hunt Ginny down, before her Quidditch practice or after when she spent three hours in the library doing not just her homework but Migell's too. Obviously doing it was not something she wanted to do but she was so up and down these days between hating herself or hating everyone else or doing both or not having the time or energy to do either, it was just so much easier to take it and do it without an argument and not have to deal with her mother being upset over the Minister not liking her father because the Minister's son who happened to be dating Ginny's father's daughter was annoyed when she would not do his homework and complained to his rich daddy. It was just too much thought. Stupid bastards. Currently Ginny was hating everyone else. Sometimes she was full of complex almost unexplainable emotions; drawing deep into her past, thinking about the thoughts others must be happening, wondering what was supposed to be, what could have been, whose fault it all was and whether it was really anybody's fault at all, what was happening to her. What had happened in her first year with Voldemort. All the things that had happened to her before her first year. And the unbelievable pressure to easily do well in anything she tried both before and after her first year. Other times she was simply pissed off. Perhaps the Vietax was affecting her brain. Causing moodswings. Actually they weren't really mood swings. The thing that swung was more like the way she thought about things. Maybe it was the Vietax causing the thought swings. Or maybe her ultra fucked up life was finally taking a toll on her. She couldn't always play the Perfect Unaffected Girl Card. It just wasn't real.

When she finally finished it was late. Curfews for Prefects were a bit later because of Prefect Duties she hated to admit she'd been neglecting lately. But she was still a little past it when she stumbled, freezing cold into the common room. It was virtually empty. She knew the curtains around her bed were drawn shut and Davinee, Laura and Kyler probably suspected she was already asleep in there. Part of her wanted to go up the stairs and crash. But she just couldn't manage it.

Ginny sat woozily down on the couch in front of the fire and yanked an open weave blanket down from atop it, wrapping herself tightly. Her teeth were chattering. Her limbs were shaking. The castle was well heated, why was she so cold? Ginny felt her eyes fluttering shut and she didn't stop them. Her face felt odd. She did not worry about falling asleep in the common room. She felt too awful to go to sleep. It felt good just to rest her eyes.

Suddenly Ginny heard sounds coming from the Boy's Staircase. She didn't give a shit. She just stayed there, trying not to shiver. It was J.J she saw, looking half awake. She didn't move. If he saw her, he saw her. She didn't want him to. She didn't not want him to.

He was probably heading to get some water from the jugs the house elves put out on the tables in the common room, but he didn't get there because he did spot her.

"Gin?" he looked down at her

"Hi." she managed, her teeth still chattering

He sat down on the couch by her. He was wearing nothing but boxers and plaid pajama pants. His dark hair was still spiked. Ginny wondered how he wasn't freezing his ass off.

"Are you okay?" he asked looking at her concerned

"I'm okay." she replied simply

"No, you're not." he said unconvinced. He could see her sweating and shivering.

He touched her forehead with the back of his hand.

"Jesus, you're burning up." he said urgently

He quickly grabbed the blankets draped over the two armchairs by the fire and threw them on top of her first one, staring into her eyes and summing up her state. She was hugely pale.

He talked in a quiet voice as most people did at night, as though they were afraid to wake anyone up no matter how far away they were, or they were afraid to wake themselves fully up. Or they didn't have enough energy to use a normal voice. He talked in one of those voices but Ginny could read the urgency in his words.

She made more room for him to sit down and when he did she rested her head in his lap. His stomach felt even colder than she was.

"How long have you been down here?" he asked her sharply

"Only a few minutes...I was in the library." she answered.

He touched her hair and looked down into her face with raised eyebrows

"Well, you're really sick."

Her face was contorting. He was right. And now that she knew she could feel her pain. She could feel it. Tears welled up in her eyes. She couldn't remember the last time she cried from pain that was physical. She'd forgotten pain could be this physical.

"Gin..." he murmured stroking her hair. He didn't say anything else. Just her name did fine. With his right hand on her forehead, he reached with his left to the table beside the couch. He flicked the lamp on, then pulled open the drawer.

Ginny actually grinned as she realized what he was doing. She remembered their third year when they had investigated what was in those drawers. They spent a good amount of time laughing at how utterly, surprisingly random the items in that drawer had been. A half eaten bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavoured Beans, an orange drinking straw, a tube of wart cream, a pad of paper–but no quill...and a thermometer. And it was the same things. In over five identical drawers. The same orange drinking straw, the same tube of wart cream. The same thermometer.

"Open up, turkey." he said. She would have smiled, she really would have if it didn't hurt.

J.J waited for the mercury to settle. It didn't take too long. He furrowed his brow looking almost scared.

"Holy shit, it's 105.9. Is that safe?"

"How the hell should I know?" she replied half joking half not. Tears rolled down her face and burned her cheeks

"Oh Gin..." he muttered. "You have a bad fever...you should be asleep..." He pulled her up so she was sitting, the whole of her body weight resting on his shoulder and wrapped his arms around her shaking body.

She loved being able to cry and having an excuse for it. She loved not caring that he saw right through her stupid excuse.

"Where've you been?" he asked her

"L-library..." she choked out lamely

He exhaled softly indicating laughter

"No...I mean...where've you _been?"_

Ginny had understood him the first time. She sniffed.

"I don't even know..."

"Well you're here right now...so stay..."

It wasn't a question. It wasn't a command. It didn't matter what it was anyways...she stayed. She stayed in his arms not speaking, not moving. He knew something more than this was wrong and he wanted to make it go away. He held her so tight as though to force her pain and fever and past to pass right through her skin and into his. And maybe he did absorb her ache. Because after so many minutes in his arms, she finally fell asleep.

"You have displeased me." Ginny murmured softly

"I know..." a voice shook. But it was hidden behind a hood... Ginny knew that voice

"Are you sorry?" she asked him

"Does it matter at all?" the voice rose slightly with defiance. Whose voice was that? Ginny had to know...

"No." she said instead "No it does not."

She didn't in the slightest bit remember choosing her words. They came easily and as though they were not her words at all. But she had to fight for what she wanted to say. She had to know whose voice that was...

"Tell me...tell me..." she started but could not finish. It was hard to control what she was saying.

"My lord?" another hooded figure asked. This one sounded concerned though and not at all defiant.

"Who are...what...what am I saying...what am I...Wormtail...WORMTAIL!"

No. She had to know who was behind that hood.

"My lord are you-"

"Remove...remove your...Wormtail...you told me...you told me you had fixed this. You horrible worthless maggot. Lying waste of flesh." Ginny hissed.

Wormtail did not step forward from the crowd of Death Eaters

"My lord is something-"

"REMOVE YOUR HOOD!" Ginny barked at the first Death Eater finally "YOU REMOVE YOUR HOOD NOW."

The Death Eater was still defiant. Ginny could tell by the slow speed and hesitation at which he removed his hood. But still he removed it. He was still loyal. He removed his hood. And Ginny felt her mouth drop.

"Percy-"

"My lord!" a death Eater gasped. A large snake was at her feet. It seemed to know something was not normal. Something was not as it should be. And it lunged at Ginny's arm. She tried to scream, but once again she had lost control over words. The snake's teeth closed on her arm just before she ripped it away and-

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Ginny jerked awake in a cold sweat on the couch. It had not been her who had screamed. J.J's eyes opened abruptly too. Immediately he looked at her confused.

"Gin? Was that-"

"Not me." she said simply but his eyes were fixed widely on her left arm. Frightened she too glanced down.

"What the-"

Two huge marks as though made by teeth were fixed blatantly by her wrist. But she wasn't bleeding. Because they were fading away. In a matter of seconds it was as though they had not been there at all. He stared at her in awe but before either of them could speak sounds from both staircases broke out. They could hear thumps and hurried voices. And yet another scream. J.J jumped off the couch.

"You can't get up the Girl's Staircase." Ginny pointed out. It didn't matter. The source of the chaos appeared at the foot of the stairs that instant.

"It'll be okay!" Davinee was exclaiming helping Laura down the stairs. But she looked scared out of her mind. And there was blood...Ginny could see the blood too well.

"Davinee!" J.J asked

She looked shocked to see him.

"Jay what are you doing here?"

Her eyes flew from Ginny to the couch and the blankets to a shirtless J.J. She cocked a single eyebrow. Ginny looked away. J.J seemed not to notice.

"What the fuck happened to you?"

Laura leant against the stone wall, shaking with her eyes shut tight

"The window...the window..." she whispered through tears.

Her arm was cut and mangled. J.J eyed it but didn't ask.

"What happened?" he asked now talking to Davinee, but she was crying too. More sounds were coming from the Boy's Staircase...Ginny felt guilty inside her fever for sitting and not moving and not helping and just bowing her own head and crying too. She trusted Davinee. She knew that there was probably something very real to cry about.

Suddenly Travis, Adam, Harry and Ron all appeared at the foot of the Boy's Staircase. Travis surveyed the scene. Ginny was sitting on the couch covered in the blankets, still shivering and white as a sheet. Laura was leaning against the wall still, but now her eyes were open and red as she clutched her blood soaked arm, and an emotionally distraught Davinee had slid down the wall and sobbed to the ground her face in her hands. Whilst J.J was looking just as confused as the four other boys.

"Oh my god Laura." was the first thing Travis said "How...what..." he walked over to her and made to help her sit down or do something to help her arm but she protested with a sob

"DON'T!" she screamed sharply "I'm not...I don't deserve...I d-did it. It was my fault."

Davinee spoke through her tears as well

"N-no, you didn't do it, it w-wasn't...it wasn't..."

"Ginny?" Ron asked almost nervously

Ginny just shook her head trying to show she didn't know what had happened without having to explain why. Harry glanced at her. He was wide eyed. One hand was clutching his wrist...

"Dee." Adam said shakily "Are you okay?"

Davinee just shook her head in her hands not looking up.

"I don't know okay!" she snapped finally "I just...I don't-"

Laura looked as though she was about to collapse. It was to the point where Travis walked over and held her shoulders in case she toppled over, despite her earlier protests.

"What's going on?" Ginny asked weakly "What happened to your arm, why are you so upset?"

Laura just sobbed.

"The window..." Davinee muttered hollowly "Kyler...Kyler..."

"Where_ is_ Kyler?" Adam asked sharply, realizing she wasn't there "In bed still?"

"She...she fell." Davinne breathed

No one spoke for a second.

"What do you mean?" J.J asked finally

"We woke up." Davinee croaked simply. "I don't even know what happened. The window was broken. The glass was everywhere. We heard something and it woke us up...and Laura...the glass...she got up and tripped onto the glass...it was_ everywhere_..." she paused

"And Davinee wasn't in her bed." Laura said finally sounding a bit calmer. "She wasn't there. She wasn't."

There was another pause

"And you think she fell out the window?" Adam dared finally, not stupid enough to come right out and say how ludicrous that sounded.

"She did." Davinee spat at him sharply. "Her bed was by the window too. Something happened."

"I'm sure there's a reasonable explination." Travis pointed out gently

"Well then why the fuck wasn't she in her bed? And why was the window broken in the first place?" Laura asked plainly

"What the fuck were _you two_ doing down here?" Ron spat at Ginny and J.J suddenly.

Everyone was startled by the sudden change of subject.

"Huh? What us?" Ginny asked bewildered.

"Yeah, _you_. J.J, I thought you were a good guy, what the hell are you playing at!" he practically yelled

"You're fucked man." J.J responded "It's not like that. I wouldn't."

"You wouldn't fuck me?" Ginny asked suddenly, her new found insecurity triggering the need for reassurance even though it was only digging her deeper into a hole

"_What?_ I mean- I didn't say-"

"Hey yeah, why _were_ you two down here so late?" Adam asked confusedly

"You asshole, why are you thinking about _that!_" Davinee screamed at him "Kyler is DEAD!"

"There's gotta be a good explanation for all of this!" Travis protested almost laughing. Too often was he the only rational one.

Ginny slouched further into the couch trying to take all this in. If Kyler was dead...on the same day she found out about Kyler being...there had to be a connection. This had to be her fault. It just had to.

"So wait, though– _all_ of you heard me scream?" Laura asked suddenly confused. It was odd that they had all heard her. And it was just too convenient that the only people who had heard her were her friends...

"No." Ron responded bluntly, "Harry was already up. He woke me up. And then we heard you scream."

Harry shot him a piercing look as if to warn him to say no more on the subject.

"You were awake?" Ginny asked strangely "Why?"

"Why were _you_ down here?" Ron asked

"I just got back from the library and J.J-"

"And J.J _what!_"

"Would you all please shut up!" Laura snapped finally. She wasn't crying anymore despite her arm. "Jesus _Christ!_"

Ron glared at her.

"My little sister has been _violated!"_ he yelled

"Don't Ron." she warned him sharply, with a roll of her eyes. "You have no fucking clue what you're talking about. Why is it only now that you care about my well being? Where the fuck was this five years ago?"

Ron's eyes went wide.

"Don't even. That was for the good of our family and you know it was."

"Yeah it brought home the money right?" she asked coldly

"What are you two _talking_ about?" Travis asked suddenly

"Nothing." they said in unison not unlocking their eyes

"We have to go out and find Kyler's body!" Davinee begged

"Don't be stupid Dee, I'm sure she didn't fall out the window."

"She _did._ You weren't there."

"Are you sure she just wasn't like...I dunno, did you ask Caroline if she knew where she was?"

Davinee paused.

"We went into her room." she said slowly "But Caroline wasn't there."

Nobody said anything for a moment. Whether Kyler fell out the window or not there was no place that the two of them could be that didn't spell out trouble.

"Well.." Adam croaked finally "She's probably with Caroline then."

"Where?" Laura asked sharply

"Look...I don't know okay?" Adam told them running a hand anxiously through his hair. "And I don't know what you two were doing down here, and I don't know what _you two_ were just talking about." he said pointing first to J.J and Ginny and second to Ron and Ginny, "And I don't know how the window broke...and I know some weird stuff is happening this year...but it's like 3 in the morning, can't we settle on this out later?" he almost pleaded.

"No wait." Ginny croaked, "Just one second, please?...Harry...why were you up already?"

He stared at her intently

"Because..." he started "Because...I thought I heard...a snake...in the room..."

She stared right back, for the first time understanding something.

"Really?" she whispered

He nodded at her his scar seeming to jump out more vividly than any of his other features.

"A snake?" Travis asked bewildered "I didn't think you could really _hear_ snakes."

Harry flashed his eyes to him.

"Believe me." he told Travis darkly "You can."

There was a pause in which no one spoke, before slowly they all began to gather their bearings and head back to bed. Travis ripped off a piece of his t shirt and tied it tightly around Laura's arm. J.J watched Ginny carefully as she stood up, still shaking. Neither of them knew why they hadn't just said they were down there together because Ginny was sick...maybe it was because that really wasn't the reason...Harry and Ginny exchanged knowing looks that confirmed they would talk about it later, and Ron pointed a finger at J.J.

"I'm after you blood." he warned.

Ginny rolled her eyes and shoved Ron out of the way as she passed him.

"Ignore him..." she muttered to J.J "And Jay?"

"Mmm-hmm?"

She looked innocently into his eyes "Thanks."

He looked back

"For what?"

They were the only two people not yet heading up the stairs

"I don't know." she answered.

He nodded

"Thanks right back half pint." he responded, sticking his hand on her head and messing up her hair before they both headed up to bed.

No one slept that night. Though no one spoke Ginny could tell they were all awake just as she was. Davinee had things on her mind, with her father, stepmother going through a rough time, and Ginny knew Laura was hiding something–and now this. It didn't take a genius to realize that sleep was hardly even an option for these girls...

Kyler was not in the common room the next morning. The five of them trickled in, in an uncertain order but nobody wanted to be the one to mention Kyler first, nor to bring up anything to do with the previous night first which was probably why Travis didn't ask about Laura's arm and though Harry was across the room looking anxious he didn't ask Ginny for a chat just yet.

So the five of them sat in silence and waited, sneaking looks at each other every so often and talking animatedly with their eyes...until-

"So, d'you guys just wanna go to breakfast without her?" Leon blurted out finally

"Without who?" Laura challenged

"Kyler."

"Well we're gonna have to at some point seeing as she's dead!" Davinee snapped

But before any of them could protest, which someone surely would have the portrait hole opened and voices flooded in.

"No, he wasn't not really, but at least I got some money and-"

Kyler stopped talking when she spotted the five of them on the couch. Sure enough like Adam had predicted she was with Caroline.

"Oh hey guys." she said casually "I thought you'd be at breakfast already."

"We don't usually leave for another five minutes." Adam pointed out

"Oh. Okay I guess." she shrugged

"Did you break the window in our dorm?" Davinee shouted suddenly

Kyler chose her words carefully

"I...I didn't think it broke. I couldn't really fit through it."

Ginny made a face

"Why were you going out the window?"

"Oh because I...I mean I wasn't...I was just leaning sort of I guess." she said changing her mind mid answer

"What in hell are you wearing?" Davinee asked her sounding disgusted

But this made Kyler absolutely snap.

"What the _fuck_ is with the interrogation?" she shouted

"What the fuck is with the leather booty shorts?" Laura asked quietly

Kyler actually blushed and said nothing.

"Well you know rules actually say that you don't need to be in uniform after curfew." Caroline shrugged

"And before 8AM?" Travis asked

"Rules also say that you aren't supposed to be _out_ after curfew." J.J pointed out with a roll of his eyes

"What the hell are you, the-" Kyler started but was interrupted

"You're a _prefect_ Caroline." Ginny almost snorted staring at her revealing outfit

"I know." she said cutting her eyes at Ginny. "And we weren't out after curfew. We were just in the common room and we got up early this morning."

And though every single one of them knew that wasn't true-...no one protested. All they wanted to know for sure was if Kyler was lying to them, and of course it was clear now that she was.

"Okay." J.J said finally, "Are you coming to breakfast now at least?"

"Yeah, we're coming." Caroline said loudly, "If you'll wait for us to get changed real fast?"

Laura shrugged

"Sure I guess."

She grinned.

"Great. Two seconds."

And the two of them ran up the staircase.


End file.
